HOW GOD SPOKE TO OUR GROUP

A few of my friends in my discipleship group had intimated to me that they wanted to grow in yielding to the gift of the Spirit.  I advised them to pray about it and I shared my belief that Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit will manifest Himself to us, as and when there is a need for God’s specific presence (either by His word or His action) to be known by His people. 

I’ve learned that in order to yield to the Spirit, all one needs to do in any given situation (whether in a prayer meeting, or a day to day encounter) would be to just open one’s heart to the sacred heart of Jesus, and let His love for the people in that encounter fill you.  And then really without much fanfare, everything you say or do out of love for the persons in that encounter, will be a gift of the Spirit.

We had a small group prayer meeting last night.  Aware of their desire to know how the Spirit works, and bearing in mind that, after all these years in coming together as a small group to pray, we’ve not had “powerful” manifestations of the Spirit, I changed our way of seeking and listening to God’s word so that they could yield more naturally to the Spirit.  Here’s what we did:

1. When Gary, our prayer leader for the night, gave an invitation for anyone who had a sense from the Lord to come forward and speak, I knew there may be dead awkward silence, thinking that no one may have been ready for this.  So, I asked everyone to sit down for a moment, and I offered to walk them through a simple process of yielding to the Spirit for God’s word.
2. I asked each person in the small group to reflect on a particular event that we all attended a few days ago last Sunday.  (Our covenant Community — Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon — had a prayer meeting to celebrate God’s covenant with us.  It was also during this prayer meeting when 33 persons accepted their covenant into our community, and where we renewed our covenant commitments to God and to each other.  We celebrate this “Feast of the Covenant” this time every year.)
3. Then I invited each person in our circle to briefly share with us their own reflection, and I said that we could then take these words in faith and believe that God would use these shared reflections as His specific word for us that evening.  And so we did.  As each one would take his or her turn to talk about their own impressions, I would gently probe for a Word, for some message that the Lord was telling them, or telling us through that reflected impression.
   1. One person was inspired by Tita Carol, that 93-year old member whom we honored during the event, and that despite her advanced years in age she was still regularly attending the community gatherings and meetings.  We all agreed that she was an awesome person.  Then I asked him what he thought God’s word is for him or for us regarding that.  His answer: “Be faithful.”  And so, we hung on that word.
   2. The next person added to that for him the word is “Be trusting.  Trust me.”  He that while that senior member was being honored last Sunday, he was impressed with how much trust she must have had on the Lord to carry her through to this day.  He recalled some words from a bible passage that said something like “I will continue the good work that I have begun in you.”  And so, we hung on to those words too, as God’s inspired word for us.
   3. The others shared their reflections, and confirmed these impressions and these words.  I myself added what I picked up from the prescribed prayer guide in preparation for the feast, which said “You did not choose me.  I chose you, and I chose you to bear good fruit.“

And so that was it.  That was how the Lord spoke to our small group. 

Here’s how I summarized this Word this morning as it resounded in my head during my prayer time:

“Remain faithful, My children.  Abide in Me.  Trust Me.  No matter what situation you’re in — whether good or bad — remain faithful through prayer, scripture reading, service and community. And I promise that I will do something great and wonderful in your life, and I will fulfill what I had planned and already started to do.  I chose you.  You will bear fruit.”  Thus says the Lord.

THANKS BE TO GOD for speaking to us.  Amen.