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This is the final in the series on the Holy Spirit. Today we focus on the prompting of the Holy Spirit. I speak of prompting as opposed to guidance. There is a distinction between guidance and prompting. The Scriptures and the life and teachings of Jesus provide us with map of the Christian life. This is a general guide for living. It tells us to love God and our neighbour. It provides a guide as to how we should live our lives. And it tells us that our purpose is to proclaim the word of God in Word and Deed. But the Holy Spirit prompts us and applies this on a daily basis.

Let me try and explain this from my experience of sailing. The wind is a wonderful thing. It is so important to us. It is a wonderful source of energy and life for this planet. You can’t see it, but you see and feel its effect. Some people read it quickly, but most don’t. As a sailor I have taken a while. It is interesting what people say to me. “Oh what a nice day for sailing.” And I am thinking it’s a nice sunny day. I need wind to sail not sun. Or, ‘There’s no wind today.’ And I am saying there’s a rustle in the tops of the trees and its from the south, it will be fair. Or, ‘That’s a nice wind for sailing.’ And I’m thinking it’s from the north and it will be gusty. When you are on the water you have to read the wind. You read it by watching its effect on the water’s surface, feel of it upon your face, and the small ribbons (telltales) you tie on the shrouds and sail. You can’t see the wind you watch how it affects things. To read the wind one needs to be constantly vigilant, and always adjusting the sail to wind. I have seen learners on the water standing still and there is a nice little breeze. They haven’t got it yet.

The way a sailor reads the wind is a perfect picture how we should read the Holy Spirit. We look for the influence and effect of the Holy Spirit upon our lives and the lives of others. Some see her, others don’t, others are learning.

Our texts chosen for today are little windows on how humankind have related to God. Maybe they are windows on how we have individually related to God. Our texts today represent our stories too.

The Exodus text tells us the story of God rescuing the people from slavery in Egypt. God came close to the people. They saw and heard God in their midst, and they were frightened rather than thrilled. They begged Moses to speak to God and be their intermediary [Ex 20:19]. So through their fear they exchanged a direct relationship with God for a mediated relationship. Then the prophets and the kings became God’s elected ones to communicate the word of God.

Jesus represents a complete change in God’s relationship to us. In Jesus God speaks to us directly giving each of us direct access to God. When Jesus knew he would be leaving his earthly life he told his disciples he would not leave them alone. He said the Spirit would be their companion [Jn 14: 18,26]. Jesus knew that it would be to our benefit if he goes away, because then the Spirit will come [16:7]. Jesus understood when he left we would learn to let the Spirit empower us and we would grow in our love for God and others.

Now I think two things happen to us. We know so little about the Holy Spirit that we don’t realise what she can and does do for us. Secondly, because we are so use to people representing God to us we have lost the ability to hear God directly.

M’s testimony last week illustrates some of this to us. When I asked her to share her faith journey M said to me. “It’s very ordinary.” So I started to asked questions. She began to tell me of her journey and I saw some things that M had not fully recognised. M’s told us she was brought up in a Christian home where the faith was taught through a correspondence course. M’s experience is that God had always been a “companion”. That’s a wonderful testimony to God. Due to circumstances largely beyond her control found herself facing a great challenge as a young mother. She continued to look to God for strength her relationship grew. At this time she asked to be confirmed. M spoke of this as a natural progression – something to complete in her life in the church. I saw this as God the Holy Spirit prompting her to make that big decision and own her faith as an adult. As M unfolded her story I was seeing something else. I began to see how as a small child she had accepted the faith of her parents. I began to see a person who had responded to the gentle promptings of the Holy Spirit in her life. I began to see a person growing and responding to God. Her experiences of life could have been the reason to reject God and become bitter, instead she was responding to promptings of the Spirit. When I put this to her she indicated she had not fully recognised all her responses as prompts by the Holy Spirit. This is not unusual. Sometimes we just miss that fact that God has been faithful and blessed us. We all do this to some extent. We all need to learn to read the wind of the Holy Spirit.

The problem of not being conscious of the promptings of the Holy Spirit is that we either miss them, or fail to build on them and become stronger Christians.

Learning to recognise the Holy Spirit. We need to learn how to read the Holy Spirit in our midst. I offer these as starting points.

1) Start doing God’s work. When we get involved with the mission of God we will find the Holy Spirit already there. She[1] will prepare the way. She will bless us. She will help us. You begin to see things happening. The Holy Spirit’s involvement is not dependent upon our knowledge, or goodness, or abilities, but on two things. Our availability to serve God, and secondly that we serve Christ, for her task is to bring glory to Jesus.

2) Start learning about the Holy Spirit. This is not essential at the beginning, but very helpful as we mature and grows in ministry. For example if we think God’s Spirit is here to help us get our way, the things we want, a parking space then, we will be disappointed. But if we understand that the Holy Spirit comes to equip and enable us to minister then we will ask for this and not be disappointed.

3) Start looking for the prompts of the Holy Spirit in your life. We need to understand that she deals with us individually. For me is it’s the voice in my head. I have to wrestle with this voice because sometimes it is my voice and other times God’s. It is not always clear and also sometimes I am either too busy to recognise or too occupied with self to obey. I always take time to consider the ‘voice’ I hear, and I always measure it against God’s general guide we find in the Bible. What I would like to witness to is that in recent years I have become much more open and receptive to God’s leading.

4) Remember that God works primarily with us as community. It is important being part of the church and a community of people who are open to listening to God the Spirit. Notice how Paul and Barnabus were set apart in Acts. Note too that listening to the communal voice of God is safer than listening to individual voices.

Remember that whenever we sense the direction of God and there is any uncertainty then you should ask whether what you are prompted to do will be glory of Jesus and help to another.

Remember God has given the Spirit to us so that we can grow and become maturer and more enabled servants of Christ and one another. I encourage you to start asking the Spirit to help you recognise her promptings.

In closing let us sing these two verses of God gives us a future (TiS 687. And notice that the Holy Spirit will empower us and transform us, and in vs. 3 she will teach us how to read the signs, meet the challenge, and love. Notice too, that we can address the Holy Spirit personally for she is one of the three persons in the Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Can you sing this hymn as your prayer? Will you face tomorrow in the Spirit’s power and let God change you? Will you ask the Spirit to teach you and to help you love? Will you?

[1] The argument for the feminine pronoun is found in the first sermon in this series, “The Person”. I hope this will help you understand the use of the feminine.