Holy Spirit, You are welcome here!

Before starting this post, I want to make something clear.

There is no wrong way to worship God if you are a true, born-again Christian, believing the Word (God’s Word) to be infallible. There are multiple denominations for a reason and although we may not all agree on every practice that each church applies, I truly believe that it showcases a little bit of who God is and that those attending a specific denomination (or nondenomination) fits who they are as a person and how they choose to worship God.

That being said, I grew up Baptist (where my people at??). I moved with my family a few times in my life (military brat turned CAT[erpillar] daughter) and the church that my family attends now, and has been attending for the past 12 years, has been absolutely wonderful. The services that we have do not separate traditional from contemporary - rather they include both hymns and contemporary music in their worship. I love both types of worship music and I was always happy to be a part of a church that didn't have to separate one type of worship from another with different services. However, to each their own!

When I moved down to Texas for school, I found myself more attracted to nondenominational churches. I looked for Baptist churches, but there was nothing quite like my home church in Illinois, and I found myself comparing each Baptist church with my own. And, although I love Baptist churches, once I got to college, I was really coming into my own. In other words, I was becoming more of who I am now that I didn't have a school environment which prevented me from being 100% myself without feeling judged.

And who am I? I'd like to think that I am a silly, blunt, funny (or I always try to be), white girl who loves to dance, even though her best moves might include "The Sprinkler" or "The Shopping Cart". Every bit of who I am today, I was able to express my whole and true self in a nondenominational church. Each person worships differently, and the church I grew up in was perfect for me growing up, but now that I am older and I have fallen in love with Jesus more and more each day, to the point where I really can't help but just shout it from the rooftops, I've found that my church in Texas allows me to do just that!

What I've found by going to the church I attend to now is that I love dancing crazy for the Lord during worship! I love being able to put my hands up in the air just to say "Yes, Father! You are so completely awesome and I'm doing this to lift Your Name up and to let everyone else know how much I love you!" I love that we can jump for joy one moment over our love for Jesus, then the next moment you're bowing down before Him in complete reverence with that same love and zeal! I love when my church family goes up to people they don't know to pray over them because the Holy Spirit lead them to do so. I absolutely LOVE how we worship - and it's because I'm 100% myself when I'm worshiping my Savior.

So what is the point of this blog? It's to share that it doesn't matter how you worship, as long as you're giving all of who you are to worship the One who created you. But it's also to share that, I believe, no matter what denomination you associate yourself with, we should always remember that the Holy Spirit is a part of us once we give our lives to Christ. We will always remember God as our Father whom we go to lean on and depend on as our Rock, and Jesus as our Savior that allowed a way for us to be able to go to the Father without a mediator, but how often do we think about the Holy Spirit or even how we can include Him in our every day lives?

What does the Holy Spirit do? He gives us life and peace (Romans 8:6); He convicts us of sin (John 16:8); He gives us strength (Ephesians 6:18); and He gives us hope and joy (Romans 15:13). Those are just a few examples.

It is so incredibly important to know that the Holy Spirit is a spirit of comfort, power, and strength that is in us to help us strive to become more Christ-like. However, it's equally as important to remember that the Holy Spirit is a spirit that empowers us to perform miracles and to prophesy!

Now, I realize that I may have lost some of you here. You may believe me to be crazy for believing that us, mere mortals, can perform miracles. To which I say, that apart from God, we can't. Apart from God, we can do nothing. But as Philippians 4:13 clearly states, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Some of you may believe this only in the context that God can help and strengthen you when you're facing an impossible situation or enduring through an extremely difficult storm. But that is only part of it! Why put God in a box when He has SO much more for you?

Acts 2:17 says this: “In the last days, God says, 'I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.'" Matthew 17:20 says, "For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” And then there are the spiritual gifts, "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills." (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)

If we have faith (even as small as a mustard seed) and if we ask God to include us, we can perform miracles. God loves us so much that He wants to include us in His plans to further His Kingdom. With the Holy Spirit in us, we each have a spiritual gift. It clearly states that in the Bible! So why run away from what we can't understand? Why not believe that in Jesus' Name we can heal people? That we can prophesy? And when I say this, I don't mean seeing or telling the future. If there's one thing I learned through a Prophetic Word seminar is that you stay away from two things: dates and mates. People have been hurt from others believing that God told someone to tell another that they were going to meet the love of their life in a year's time, or that they would have a baby in X amount of time, and it didn't end up coming true. People have been hurt from churches prophesying the future to them.

However, I believe that prophecy is more hearing words from God through the Holy Spirit over yourself or for another to encourage, comfort and strengthen others spiritually. 1 Corinthians 14:3 says, "...the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation."

There is a LOT on the subject of the Holy Spirit and on God as a whole. There is a lot about Him that we can't understand and won't understand until we are in Heaven with Him where we have an eternity to get to know Him. And I will not pretend to be someone who knows more about God than others. My whole life is a journey of getting to know Him while I'm on earth and I'm only (Lord-willing) a quarter of the way done with my life! So of COURSE I don't know more about God than a Christian who is my senior!

But I wanted to talk on the subject of denominations of the church and lead into the subject of the Holy Spirit because each denomination believes that God is a Holy Trinity: the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. God the Father performs miracles all throughout the Bible. Jesus, the Son, performed miracles all throughout His time on Earth. So if the Holy Spirit is in us, why can't we believe that we, also, can perform miracles? Even if it's as "small" as speaking words of comfort, encouragement, and strength to someone who needs it at the right time? Because to them, that is a miracle, and it's certainly not small.

Never forget that God always has and wants more for you. It's just a matter of asking and believing.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7