Anxiety and The Holy spirit

God is not anxious. God is not worried. God does not get tired. God does not fret. He is God.

I don’t know whether you have enjoyed the experience of eating a nice meal on an aircraft as it flies along. You look out of the window, and you see the roads, towns and cities, the seas and oceans, forest and deserts. Sometimes you can only see the white tops of the clouds: underneath all that is more than likely some bad weather for some places: rain, grey and cold. But you are far above all that, the sun shines brightly, the sky is blue, as you sip your wine and enjoy the food.

So is God far above all the worries and pain of this world. He cares, He is not distant – He rolled His sleeves up and got stuck in and joined in our experience in the person of Jesus, His son. And He not only came alongside us, as an act of solidarity, but transformed the experience of being human for ever. But He lives above it all, reigning in Glory. And he wants us to share in that.

Jesus was God, walking on the earth, talking and interacting with people. Healing, teaching, curing people from evil strongholds. The miraculous was the norm. But Jesus was only ever in one place at one time, dealing with one group of people. He actually said that it was good that He was going to go back to be with His father, as He would send the Holy Spirit, who He called the ‘Comforter’, who would be with each and every believer, any time, any place, anywhere. Jesus is sharing His life with God - the Father- with us. Pretty amazing stuff! We can have the same intimacy with God that Jesus had, because His spirit is in us, to guide, to comfort, to sustain and help. And to soar above the clouds with Him.

Now, we can have one of two responses to this amazing fact. We can carry on as normal, as if God hadn’t done this, and ignore the Spirit within (‘quenching the spirit’). Or we can co-operate with His Spirit, and allow it to take precedence in our lives. When we ignore the Spirit, and carry on trying to please ourselves on a material level, this is known as allowing the ‘old man’ or the ‘carnal man’ to reign, and as a person is pulled in two directions, a bit like trying to row a boat against the current, it doesn’t get very far, and ends up frustrated. But if we listen to the Spirit within, and try to co-operate, then the boat is rowing in the same direction as the current, and progress is made.

One of the best features of the indwelling Spirit of God in us is that we can share in God’s life. God is full of love and praise and worship. I once visited a town in Switzerland which was surrounded by high towering peaks, topped with snow and ice. I came out of my hotel for the first time, and looked up at this sheer face of rock, 10,000 feet tall, with the ice fields on top glinting in the sun. I couldn’t help but shout out ‘Wow! That’s amazing!’. Or how easy is it to tell the person you love what is lovely about them? At the heart of God is the ‘wow!’ and ‘I love you’. As we worship God, the Holy Spirit within us transports us from the cold and rainy situation we are in to the plane cruising effortlessly above, we get involved in the life of God, and our problems get left behind. Unfortunately, we have to come back down into the grey, rain and cold. But it is good to see God’s perspective for a while. And sometimes we don’t come back to the same place as we left.

So, many have found by ‘soaking’ themselves in the Holy Spirit, by having a time of praise and worship, perhaps by yourself with a Worship CD, or with a friend or two, that problems get put into their rightful place. Sometimes this is a supernatural encounter, when spending time with God actually alters us. Sometimes the praise and worship might be a walk in the countryside, or a visit to an art gallery, or an uplifting concert, where we get drawn out of ourselves into the majesty and grandeur of God and His creation.

Jesus said:
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.John 14:26 KJV

A simple prayer:

Dear Jesus, I thank you and put my trust in you. Please come into my life. I know that you will always be at my side even when I am at my most anxious; I know that you will never let me down. Forgive me for the times that I have disappointed you. Guide me and teach me, fill me with your power, I pray for healing and peace in the love and assurance that you died and rose again. amen.