Today I was chatting on the phone with a friend from Illinois who is making a lot of those college-age decisions we're all thinking about - what to do over the summer, what to do with life, where to move after graduation, etc. She and I were having a very light conversation joking about the possibilities, when she got very serious and asked: "How does a person know for sure that the Holy Spirit is in something? What are the indicators, the tests, the variables that have to be there?"
The wording of the question initially struck me as rather odd because I'd never tried to parce up the Holy Spirit's presence and agency with such scientific vocabulary. My brain doesn't usually think in scientific ways, and I've usually felt this issue out in terms of synchronization: is my heart beating in time with God's, or not?
But her quest for a God indicator is a useful question in many ways. In the ways we spend our time, the activities we engage in, the dreams we cultivate... how exactly do we know and articulate that it's all coming from God and not merely our own fancy? I'd love to know how you approach this issue, and how your experience would lead you to articulate the Holy Spirit's agency... so please comment if you've got an answer!!
So far my mess of musings has distilled into this: I can trust that the spirit activating me is from God if I have a sense of Peace, Purpose, and Potential.
The sense of Peace is necessary because it saves us from rashness or regret. I think the author of the Book of Sirach was talking about peace when he wrote "Do nothing without deliberation, but when you have acted, do not regret it" (Sirach 32:19).
The sense of Purpose is necessary because this is the fire which makes life decisions matter. In today's postmodern world where everything - including religion and altruism - is so easily reduced to meaninglessness, the Holy Spirit is the little voice that whispers, "But it DOES matter! It's part of the building of the reigning kingdom!" Sometimes I feel a great sense of purpose and sometimes the world seems absolutely arbitrary... but I've noticed I'm always much happier in the first state, and so I think that must be linked to the presence of the wholesomeness of God.
The sense of Potential is necessary because it ensures that the proposed decision is in our best interest. There are lots of good options out there, but for whatever reason, some of the choices are marked by a personal sense of thriving while others are marked by a personal sense of dead-end-ness. Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10) and I think that gives us license to choose what will make us most fully human and fully awake. Do you ever get the feeling that your heart is opening wider and that it's capacity to learn and love will keep on increasing forever? I think that's God.
What do you think? Would you find Peace, Purpose and Potential to be useful tests of God's agency in your life? What are the 'variables' that you look for? How has the presence of God sorted itself in your experience?
~Stephanieeeee
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