The main goal of the Hanging Out with the Holy Spirit events was to help us learn how to let the Spirit guide us. The group has spent time listening for words, waiting for images, and sensing promptings from the Holy Spirit. It has been a meaningful experience for many and perhaps a little frustrating for some others. There has been a request to carry on at least one more week and so the plan is to meet this Wednesday June 3 at 7 pm in the council room. Sorry if you heard me say 7:30 during the sermon on Sunday…the correct time is 7 pm.

I hope that the idea of being guided by the Spirit grows among us so that we can say what is said by the early church in the book of Acts “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” This phrase does not give us a guide on “how to hear” but it certainly makes clear that we should figure out how to pay attention to the Spirit. That is what we are figuring out on Wednesday, building on what has happened the last number of weeks. Everyone is welcome to come.

Another area in which I have seen the Spirit guide is in the planning of preaching for the summer. As you may know, we have a Scripture Group which is people who spend time memorizing or internalizing Bible passages. Often the passages are connected to an upcoming sermon series that has been planned. The Sermon on the Mount series was done this way. For the summer before us, I have asked each person to simply pick a passage that they want to internalize and on the Sunday they present, I will preach on that passage. The biggest surprise in this plan was that out of all the passages in the Bible, two of us picked the same thing. And that might not be surprising if it was a well-known and often quoted passage. However, it was Ezekiel 47. I will let you look that up as I am assuming you do not automatically know the content. I am anticipating what God will say through this passage.

Paying attention to the Spirit’s guidance can be as simple as paying attention to connections like that. It can be noticing who God sends in your path. It can be seeing when the same word or song or passage keeps showing up in your life. It can be paying attention to what happens in your dreams. I simply encourage you to pay attention and share what you see and celebrate what God shows you along the way as you allow his Spirit to guide you.

Pastor Erick Schuringa

What's Going On? Guidance