It’s an important question because we can talk about Pentecost, and we can talk about the fact that the Holy Spirit is already within you, already operating already calling you to holiness, already creating environments and opportunities for for you to spread the good word and to be a witness to the world, but if we don’t know how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit — and, in this case, listen to the Holy Spirit — and then act, what are we really talking about, right?
I liked how this question was phrased, because it’s important that it’s not just listen. We listen and act. There’s a there’s a time of listening, and hearing what God wants you to do, and then acting on it. One of my favorite definitions of a disciple is asking two questions: what is God saying to you? And what are you doing about it? And, in some ways, “What is God saying to you?” and “What are you doing about it?” is completely within the stream of the Holy Spirit. The Lord is going to speak to you through the power of the Holy Spirit and then going to empower you to do something about it in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So I’ve got three tips, and I’m going to warn you, these are not, like, super duper theological. Sometimes, I think the basics are more important than the really deep stuff. Just remembering the fundamentals is really important in this. So the first thing is, and this one applies mostly to the listening, if you’re in a position of saying, “I just don’t hear God speak to me, alright? I don’t know what God sounds like. A voice in heaven hasn’t opened up and said, ‘This is my beloved Son,’ this hasn’t happened. How do I know when God is speaking to me?” My first question to you is always — anyone I ever encounter like this — is, “How often do you read Scripture?”
How often are you actually reading the word of God? He wrote a book for us. In the book, we actually can experience His style, His manner, His language, who He is, what He says, how He interacts in all sorts of different situations. And so, one of the best ways, very practically, to begin to listen to the Holy Spirit, is spend time every single day reading Scripture. And here’s how I’d like you to do it: read until something in you goes, “Ooh, that’s different.” Like something inspires you. And sit with that, and listen to that, and pour over that little moment. Because it’s in that little “Umph,” that’s often when the Holy Spirit is talking. So the first one is Sacred Scripture.
The second thing, and this is going to be uncomfortable for some of you, but one of the best ways to know if if the Spirit’s talking to you is, when you have a sense that He might be saying something, you test it. Scripture says this: “Do not despise prophecy; test everything, and hold fast to what is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21) So often, we know that it’s the Spirit by the fruit that is born by acting on it. And we often don’t know if it’s the Spirit or not because we never act on it! So, if you’re in a situation where you’re feeling like, “Is this the Spirit? Is this not the Spirit?” Let’s be bold! Let’s be okay with a little bit of failure every once in a while, let’s be okay with a little bit of, “No, that wasn’t it.” Or, “That was a little off topic.” And then, be open to fraternal correction, be open to walking back, and being humble enough to say, “I’m so desiring to live in the power of the Holy Spirit, and follow His promptings, that even when I stumble a little bit, or even when I’m a little fleshly, I’m going to just keep doing it.” So the second tip is just, like, trial and error goes a long way.
And then third tip: the Holy Spirit often speaks to other people for you. So companionship is essential to hearing and acting on the power of the Holy Spirit. I mean, even for the apostles at Pentecost, they were together, they were all in one place together. And when the Spirit came out, they could co-experience what was going on and inspire each other. So to be able to have other people in your life who are also trying to listen and act creates environments where, I’m listening to something and encouraging you to act, you’re listening to Him and encouraging me to act, and now, the next thing you know, we’re going together.
All three of these things were made clear to me in one of my men’s groups I had not too long ago. We committed to reading scripture together and we also committed to two other things. One was, every morning, the first thing we did in the morning, we’d say, “Come Holy Spirit.” And every time we got together as a men’s group, we had to report on one opportunity, one moment where we heard the Holy Spirit and we acted on it in an evangelistic way. And you never wanted to be the guy who didn’t have a story, right? You didn’t want to come to men’s group and be like, “Yeah, I didn’t do it, guys.” Because then everyone would jump on you and be like, “Come on, let’s do this thing.” So it was a Thursday morning, men’s group was that night, I wake up, I say, “Come, Holy Spirit,” and realize, I don’t have a story. I haven’t tried to share the gospel once in the past week. And I’m looking at my schedule and going, “It’s not going to happen, but we’ll just see what happens.” So I go to the bank at 10:30 in the morning, I walk up to the teller, the teller says, “Hey, going to work a little late today?” And I say, in my head, “That’s kind of a strange question, what if I didn’t have a job?” But what I heard in that moment was a little prompting of the Holy Spirit, saying, “Tell her what you do.” So I said, “Well, this is what I do.” And I just poured out my work life, which is a ministry life, and she’s kind of like, “Oh my gosh!” And then she goes, “Well, I’m a Christian too!” I said, “Great, tell me about that.” And then a whole bunch of people came into the bank, and I couldn’t follow up on it.
But the point was, in that moment, I was open to the power of the Holy Spirit, I had brothers who were supporting me, I’d been reading the Scriptures, and when I was faced with the moment when the Spirit moved on my heart, I could act on it. So today, let’s start to read Scripture, let’s start the trial and error when the Holy Spirit moves on our heart, and find other people who want to do it with you.