A couple of weeks ago, when I was staying with my grandsons and Bentley, their dog, while their mom and dad were away, a strong, fierce-sounding storm came rolling through. Bentley sure was afraid of the hard rain, lightning and thundering. In my moment of weakness and love for this little dog, I made a pillow nest for him in my bed. The little guy didn’t move all night long. He was at peace since he knew all is well with me being there with hi<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was saying \u201cPeace. Be still. In the name of Jesus\u201d, over and over again. Bentley and I had a peaceful, good night’s sleep — except for me continuing to be sure he hadn’t fallen off the bed as I patted for him all night long. The next morning several items had been strown around outside, but inside all was well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today is Pentecost Sunday, and those winds and their sounds hold no comparison to the winds that day! Acts 2:1-2 says \u201cAnd when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.\u201d This was a noise LIKE a violent rushing wind. This \u201cwind\u201d is not violent that tears apart trees and patio furniture and shingles from a roof. It is better likened to a refreshing, cool breeze of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus compared the Holy Spirit to a gentle breeze that blows through one\u2019s life and changes everything. He first mentioned the Holy Spirit in a conversation with a spiritual leader named Nicodemus who had always tried to please God by following Him with precise scores of rules and laws. Jesus described a spiritual experience far more personal than that. \u201cYou can\u2019t get to know God by anything you do yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later, when Jesus was about to leave this earth to return to heaven, His disciples were sad and wondered how they could live without Him. He promised them: \u201cI will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever \u2014 the Spirit of Truth. He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.\u201d (John 14:16\u201318).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, Jesus knew that a human body could be in only one place at one time. But through His Spirit, He could be with us all the time. And not just with us. The Bible says the Holy Spirit will, if we will let Him, live within us. \u201cDon\u2019t you know that you yourselves are God\u2019s temple and that God\u2019s Spirit lives in you?\u201d asked the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 3:16).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I just had to write another blog today about the Holy Spirit Who has been my mainstay. It is surely the most wonderful and most mysterious blessing of all! If you\u2019ve ever prayed in grief or discouragement and suddenly felt comfort or if you\u2019ve asked God for help in making a decision and felt a dawning awareness of what the right choice should be, then you\u2019ve already met the Holy Spirit. The Spirit does the very things that Jesus Himself did while He was with us: He comforts us, helps us to understand truth, provides direction and healing, helps us to admit when we\u2019ve sinned, and reassures us of God\u2019s love. The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in the lives of those who love Him. What makes all the difference is knowing that the Holy Spirit is always here, always watching, always encouraging, and always ready to help us when we really need Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps, today, you\u2019re feeling the soft, gentle breezes of the Holy Spirit drawing you into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Scripture says \u201cI have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you\u201d. (Jeremiah 31:3) He\u2019s nudging you to commit your life to God. If you are already a Christian, the Spirit may be calling you to a more devoted life to Christ and even to a life of greater service to others. Whatever He might be saying to you, God asks you to believe that His Spirit is there, near you, watching you, giving you the power to overcome, be more faith-filled and drawing you closer into Himself. Go ahead. Lean in. Experience those cool, gentle breezes of Holy Spirit right now, this very day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A couple of weeks ago, when I was staying with my grandsons and Bentley, their dog, while their mom and dad were away, a strong, fierce-sounding storm came rolling through. Bentley sure was afraid of the hard rain, lightning and thundering. In my moment of weakness and love for this little dog, I made a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13475,13474,20706],"tags":[17405,1210,1769,3402,2822,20703,2135,20704,777,40,20705,551,2826,2827,1620,2829,4398],"class_list":["post-14342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-spirit","category-pentecost","category-pentecost-sunday","tag-at-peace","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-comforter","tag-counselor","tag-day-of-pentecost","tag-everlasting-love","tag-gentle-breeze","tag-holy-spirit","tag-inspiration","tag-nicodemus","tag-peace-be-still","tag-pentecost","tag-pentecost-sunday","tag-presence-of-god","tag-spirit-of-truth","tag-winds-blowing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14344,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14342\/revisions\/14344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}