Lead by the Spirit

by Father Dave Pivonka via Hallow

Hello, and welcome to Hallow. Take a moment. Be still. Be quiet. Let the Lord be present to you.

Let us begin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The fact that you are (reading) this at this very moment, that you've clicked, opened it up, and you're (reading) this, says that the Lord is moving in your heart. You're attempting to grow in your prayer life, but prayer can be difficult and perhaps more accurate. We make it difficult. I think honestly, difficult than it should be or more difficult than it needs to be. Good thing we're not alone.

I love in the scriptures in Romans 8. It says the Spirit, too, helps us in our weakness for we do not know how to pray as we ought. Today, we're gonna do that. We're just gonna pray that the Holy Spirit would lead us and help us to pray.

Our desire, or your desire, our desire to pray, to draw closer to Jesus, to know his peace, that in itself is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It's not just because you're the most amazing person, your most amazing mom, most amazing father, your most amazing son or dad. That's, I mean, that may be true, but what moves in you to pray is the Holy Spirit. Whether or not you're aware of it, the Holy Spirit is already working in you that causes you to desire to pray, to grow in relationship with him.

But we don't often know how to pray. And the Spirit wants to be able to lead us, to teach us. And at the heart of the prayer is relationship. It's a relationship with the Father, a relationship with the Son, a relationship with the Spirit.

Even in a strange sense, a relationship with our self that we come to understand our self more, our heart, the mysteries of our heart. And it is the Holy Spirit that allows us to see these things. The Holy Spirit is in perfect relationship with the Father and the Son. And at the heart of prayer is this deepening of this relationship with the Father and the Son. And if we believe that the Holy Spirit is intimately in union with the Father and the Son, then it makes sense for us that we would ask the Holy Spirit to overshadow us, to fill us, to move in us, so as to be able to help us to pray.

That we ask the Holy Spirit to help, to show, us the Father. The Holy Spirit can lead us to the Father, can reveal to us a Father who loves us, a Father who continues to see us and know us. I love in the scriptures and says the Father sees in secret. It's the Holy Spirit that makes that revelation. The Holy Spirit that allows us to call out to God as Abba.

It's also the Holy Spirit who overshadowed Jesus, the Holy Spirit that was upon Jesus in the Jordan when he was baptized. That God takes on flesh, and it is the Holy Spirit when we're able to be quiet and to be still that can reveal that to us. He wasn't just a moral teacher. He just wasn't somebody very wise, somebody that did lots of miracles, but he was the anointed one. He was the Christ.

And that he offered himself for us. And in our prayer, in our quiet, in our stillness, we just say that come Holy Spirit and help us to see the Son. Help us to know who Jesus is. Help us to know who we are in relationship with him. Help me to find myself in these scriptures, in these encounters with Jesus.

I think sometimes honestly when we pray, we have somewhat of a checklist mentality that we pray, that there were go, we've got this little list. Okay. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do that. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. And my prayer is done. And if that's the only way we're praying, that's still better than not praying.

But I suggest that maybe that God wants us to be able to be quiet, to be still. And I think it's there. It's there that we discover a deeper relationship with the Father. It's there that we discover who Jesus is and and and who we are in relationship with him and what he's done for us.

It's in our silence and it's in our stillness that we experience the promptings of the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit literally teaches us to pray. So let's just pray for that for a moment.

Lord, we thank you that you have moved in our heart and that we desire to pray. Come, Holy Spirit.

May I be overshadowed by your Holy Spirit. Draw me into a deeper relationship with you. And just as we pray that this image of this large group of people and the Lord is drawing you out of that in a relationship with him. May I experience your presence, your peace, your healing, your encouragement, your hope? Be present to me, Jesus. Be present to me, Father. Be present to me, Holy Spirit, as I strive to be present to you.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray. O God who taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant that by the gift of the same Spirit, we may be always truly wise and ever rejoice in its consolation through Christ our Lord. Amen? Amen.

I'm Father Dave Pivonka, don't forget today that the Spirit of God who dwells in you is greater than the spirit of this world. You are not alone. You've got this.

May God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen? Amen.