Leadership Circle Notes
The Holy Spirit
Jersey Shore Circle, May 23
What a magical first Circle night of the season to dive deep on the Holy Spirit! So great having most of the group together again. Thank you all for coming.
So many nuggets from you guys. Let me try to pull them together:
1. “Give Peace a Chance.” If we want peace in our lives, there is really one sure way to get it: lean into the Holy Spirit, and give him a chance to give us peace. So many of our stories last week highlighted times of suffering or concern in our lives where we turned to the Holy Spirit in prayer and he gave us the confidence to carry forward. This is what I call “the Holy Spirit method”, which is different from the “white knuckle method” that we all too often use—powering our way through the problem on our own power. Sometimes that works, but often in doesn’t. And in any case, it’s a lot harder that way. But somehow, when we put a really tough problem in front of Him, even when the problem isn’t resolved as we’d hoped, we feel better about where we are heading. We know he has it. And that gives us peace.
2. “Give me a sign!” Sometimes, we get so frustrated with God, and start feeling so abandoned by him, that we cry out for a sign. Even Jesus in some way did this on the cross, “Father, father, why have you abandoned me?” Of course, the signs of God are all around us and in front of us, but we don’t always see them because they’re not what we asked for. Sometimes it’s just bumping into someone on the street who has a bigger problem than us, and making us realize our problem is manageable. And other times, when we are really, really low, the Lord has a way of knowing that and giving us a sign we’ll recognize—like a whale breaching the ocean off the coast or a seal on the beach, waving at us. At least enough of a sign to let us know he’s there, with us. What signs is the Lord giving me today? Have I recognized them all? Even the hidden ones?
3. “The Power of Adoration.” One way of getting in touch with the Holy Spirit is to sit quietly with the Lord in Adoration regularly. This is sometimes viewed as not a “Guy Thing”, especially by those of us who get restless easily. But that may be why it can be so powerful. Adoration takes us out of our normal work day rhythm, and that alone can be helpful. The voice of the Holy Spirit is often quiet, so hearing him in our busy lives requires finding a quiet place to do so. We had some wonderful stories through the evening of great Holy Spirit Moments that occurred during Adoration. Are we making enough quiet time for Him in our daily lives?
4. “A room on fire.” We reflected on El Greco’s masterpiece, “Pentecost.” The apostles almost seem to be in a mystical trance as they are caught up in the light of the Holy Spirit, literally bathing them in love. One of us told a story about being in the room of his dying mother with his siblings, and the magical moment just before she died and suddenly came to life for a last “I love you.” For him, it was literally like “a room on fire.” Not all our Holy Spirit moments are so dramatic, but when they are, they are special.0
5. “The need for action.” One of the powerful thoughts we reflected on with the Acts of the Apostles was just how many times the Holy Spirit is mentioned—over 50! And virtually every time he’s mentioned, the Apostles do something: leave one community, visit another, hop in a boat, take a new course. What’s so special about Acts is that we get to see how the relationship between the Apostles and the Holy Spirit, following his appearance on Pentecost, keeps getting stronger and stronger the more they lean into him. Every time they do, he seems to deliver, and that increases their confidence, which helps them to act with ever deeper conviction the next time they’re asked. So when the Holy Spirit is seeking an action from us, it’s partly because he needs our help, but not really. It’s more that he needs us to experience the Love that the action he’s seeking unleashes, reinforcing us and giving us even greater confidence in Him. But we have to respond. We have to “ say yes.”
Resolution: We resolved to pray each morning for the courage to make ourselves more available to the Holy Spirit’s call, and to act when he asks us to even when it sounds crazy. Let’s see what happens!
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