Faithbase

Prayer day one, start with prayer. Dear God, please help me to hear you and understand your message for me, amen. The beans or the background. John the Baptist traveled throughout the Jordan Valley preaching about repentance and baptizing believers. His life had been set apart since before his birth to prepare the hearts of God's people to be ready to receive Jesus and his message. Today we read about John baptizing Jesus. The verse, Luke chapter three, verses 21 and 22. When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven. You are my son whom I love. With you I am well pleased. The fill, what's the point? At the beginning of Jesus's ministry, he is baptized and receives the Holy Spirit. Jesus needed the Holy Spirit in order to do his work down here on earth, to be able to communicate with God his father. The Holy Spirit was essentially the line connecting Jesus to God. It's what enabled him to receive his directions, so to speak. It's what gave Jesus his strength, courage, and peace. This entire series was actually inspired by passages I kept finding about how Jesus, again, using the Holy Spirit, consistently had to get away to pray while he was on earth. So I decided to write this series thinking if Jesus himself had to get away to pray in order to do his work, what makes us think we're big and bad enough to do ours alone? And better yet, why would we want to? And even though receiving the Holy Spirit is not quite as dramatic for us, there are no doves descending upon us or anything, we still get to receive it, though. It absolutely amazes me that the same exact power that Jesus needed and received, y'all, it rests within each of us, too. The steam, what does this mean to me and how can I apply it to my life today? All right, pretty cool. But then I need to know how. How do we get the Holy Spirit into our hearts? Well, receiving the Holy Spirit is something that we can ask for any time, any place. We simply say something like, God, I believe in you, I wanna know you, and have your spirit dwelling within me. Boom, done. And the cool thing is, once we've asked for it, it's there. There's nothing left we have to do, we don't have to renew our membership or keep a certain grade point average to maintain good standing. The Holy Spirit is in your heart forever and ever from that point forward. So most likely, the Holy Spirit has been dwelling in your heart for a long time. We just get really good at ignoring the fact that he's there sometimes. Which leads me to say, even though we don't have to re-ask for it, oftentimes just acknowledging your need of him and asking him to remind you that he's there, it helps to refocus and recenter you a little bit. This is especially helpful during those days or even seasons of life where you find yourself drifting away. I definitely find myself in need of refocusing from time to time and simply say, okay, I remember and trust you're in there, Lord, just help me to feel you. Because honestly, so much of this journey of faith is about choice and focus. His power is there. We just have to choose whether or not we tap into it. When we're praying, we can choose to merely mumble words from memory out of habit. Honestly, it's the way I pray over meals most times, but then move on. Those are the times where we can't say that we really felt any connection because we're simply just going through the motions. But on the flip side, we can also choose to get quiet, to take time to really be vulnerable and open, to be still and listen. And girl, trust me, those are the times where you will feel it. It might take a little practice, but rest assured you will learn to hear and feel him. Give it a shot today. Start by asking him to fill your heart, lay out anything that's on your mind, and then just breathe and be still.