Holy Spirit

Jesus, I dedicate this space to you again. I pray that at the reading of my words, every reader is blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places (Eph. 1:3), and that you are working mightily in their lives to teach them about who You are. Holy Spirit, I dedicate this post to You. If it wasn’t for You, I wouldn’t be hear typing these words. I wouldn’t be stepping out in faith to create this blog. I wouldn’t be following Jesus. And I wouldn’t be able to hear God’s voice for myself. I praise you, Father, for giving Your Son so that I can have fellowship and intimacy with You. I thank You that we get to have relationship, and that You love the things I love, and cherish the things I cherish. Have Your way with this post and my fingers as I type out Your words. Use me to reach Your children, Father, amen.

I was just getting ready to wrap presents to put under the tree. J.T. had turned on National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and we’d just finished supper when I felt it. This little tug in my spirit, “Spend time with me”.

“OK, Lord”.

I showered and snuggled up in bed with my phone and the Word, and some peaceful meditational worship music. I asked the Lord to use my pen to write back to me as I prayed out my heart in the Spirit. I asked him what He wanted me to write about tonight, and He simply responded, “Me.” So, let me tell you what He’s been sharing with me about who He is. I’ve struggled in different parts of my life more recently with intentionality, and stewardship. We’ve been discussing those two topics heavily in my church, and it’s begun to shift my perspective on the Gospel for the better. I’ve had more personal struggles since having Judah, returning to work, and managing a well balanced life with those two new transitions. I manage a division of a line of service within my office, and there are days that are more stressful than others. But what’s more than that, is that my work environment has recently started to heavily affect my joy. WAY more than it used to before having Judah. And I’ve returned from maternity leave to a few scenarios that have left me with so many questions on what to do and how to handle these situations correctly. This leads me to telling you the first thing Holy Spirit told me tonight:

“I have an answer for every question.” Such a simple phrase, and yet it instantly touched my heart. In a world full of so many social issues, political issues, and constant screaming of opinions, I (probably along with you) find myself questioning the right and wrong way to handle things these days. Social topics like homosexuality, COVID, women’s rights, and so many others leave me wondering how the Father views it all. But for me, this specific sentence from the Holy Spirit was in reference to a couple of work situations that I’d been dealing with, and more specifically, a couple of people. Here’s the thing, these people don’t have a clue that I carry home with me so much weight concerning them, but it’s who I am. An empathetic feeler to no end, I’m still learning boundaries on how to healthily love and respect people in the workplace, without becoming a garbage can for people’s personal issue vomiting. Today it was a client who had no idea they’d frustrated me to no end. I’d left the office aggravated with the client, the situation, and some of my employees working for this client.

And as I was sitting here asking the Lord what on earth to do with it all, he reminded me of what intentionality looks like. Intentionality isn’t convenient. It doesn’t just present itself in a situation. It requires effort on my end to become effective. And tonight the Lord was telling me that the people I cross paths with in both my workplace and my public facing division are opportunities to steward intentionality. Those people are the mission field. They’re the ones who I see one side of, but who live totally different lives after 5pm and before 8am daily. They’re the ones who have a husband with cancer, whose father just passed away suddenly, whose doctor just was fired due to malpractice and has left them wondering if their medical issues were even real, the ones whose mom is struggling with dementia and they’re the sole caretaker. Who am I to decide who I will and won’t be intentional with? He reminded me that I should especially be intentional with those that I don’t feel like being intentional with. The ones that have frustrated me that day or that I want to hide from instead of dealing with their issues at hand.

This reminder came with an example: this is what the apostles did. They lived in constant communion and communication with the Holy Spirit, asking Him for direction with every step they take in their lives, and because of that, they lived out of a place of consistent peace. They spoke Jesus into the lives of everyone they encountered. They were love to those who didn’t deserve it. They were Jesus to this earth. And aren’t I called to be the same? These people God places in our lives, in our paths, are ours to steward. He reminded me that only I can be intentional, and steward them well. And that He would give me the words, the answers, the nudge to know when to do so. He’ll do the same for you, if you’ll let Him. I plan to go to work tomorrow and intentionally call my client and pray over her, and remind her of God’s love for her, regardless of whatever’s going on in her life. I hope this Word inspires you to do the same for someone hard in your own life.

All My Love, Abbey