From Head to Heart

Sometimes there is a disconnect between what we know and what we really know. We know things about God and the Bible, yet we don’t live in the knowledge or appropriate it in our day-to-day life. It’s as though our knowledge about God is checked in upon arrival to church and then checked out before we go—or as if what you are learning from God is confined to a day or a place. That is sooooo not true! We are to take what we know with us and live it out daily. How do I know you have that problem? It’s because I have that problem too!


I can know that God is Creator. I can know that as Creator, He made everything: “without Him nothing was made that was made” John 4:1-3 or “Everything has been created through Him and for Him” Col.1: 16 But knowing that He made it and thereby He owns it is quite a difference. And add to that a personal aspect of that He made me thus He owns me makes an even bigger difference! We live this out and connect it in other areas: we all understand copyrights. If you write a song, it’s yours. If I create something, it’s mine. We would all hold that to be a valuable truth. But apply that same truth to God and people fuss, squirm, and get uncomfortable. So to know it and to live it out can be disconnected unless we spend some time getting things connected. You really believe this whether you have thought about it or not. Perhaps a minute to connect some things may be worth your time.


How good is electricity if it is not hooked up? A house can have the greatest and the latest, it can have all the night-scaping and automatic timers and task lights and mood lighting, timers, switches and remotes, but without the connection it is lost. So too we can have information about God without connecting it to life, and we are in the dark! Loosing out and breaking our noses as we run full steam into a wall, or stubbing our toes on every unseen obstacle along the way is not how God wants us to live.


So spending time connecting what we know to how we live seems logical and practical indeed. We know about God—much, much more than he is our Creator. He is all knowing, all-powerful and present everywhere at once. He is Love, our Father, Provider—the list is endless. We know about Jesus. He is the visible image of the invisible God; he is Savior, Messiah, the Prince of Peace, Healer, Redeemer, Restorer—on and on the list could go. I know this, I try to live it out, and it is not too weird or uncomfortable to my thinking. But go one step further…


That Holy Spirit part can get trickier. I am even good with the “Holy” part but add “Spirit” and all of a sudden things get wigged out in my head. I am not sure if it is a block or too many Scooby Doo and Casper programs as a kid. But recently as I was preparing for the retreat, I saw a simple aspect of the Holy Spirit that I had never really applied to my living that has had such impact. To remain disconnected kept me un-empowered, which is Satan’s strategy, and he uses fear of the unknown to keep it going.


Upon beginning my studying several months ago, I saw that the Spirit is the very breath of God. (Which is no doubt why Satan has an all out attack on Him). As I meditated on Him being the breath of God, it really filled and blessed me. There is nothing weird or spooky about breath—I get that, and I can live out a truth like that. As I thought about it, I saw some wonderful things I would love to share with you…


*The Holy Spirit is as there as air. Air is all around us and is everywhere we go—so is the Holy Spirit.

*The Holy Spirit is as necessary as breath. We can do NOTHING without air, not less or little—nothing can be done without breath.

*The Holy Spirit is as available as air, He is not tricky or limited; He is and has been since before the foundations of the world. He was hovering over the darkness and ready to move into action; that is still what He can do.

*The Holy Spirit takes life and health to every part of us; there is nothing he is not interested in. He wants to be in every part of your life, like breath takes oxygen to every part of us to bring life and health—that is what the Holy Spirit does in us.

*The Holy Spirit is unseen but real. There is a lot we know that is unseen but real—that electricity I mentioned earlier, air or wind are unseen—but try to convince people in New Orleans wind is not real. They saw the affects they know—we know. We just need to apply that reality into our everyday life. The Holy Spirit may be unseen, but he is not unreal!

*The Holy Spirit needs to be as regular as breath in our lives. We don’t store up air to use later; we use it all day as needed. Everyday, all day, breath and air are needed—an unlimited resource is ours for the using, no cut backs needed–use all you want!

*The Holy Spirit is given upon new birth just as we received breath once upon birth physically. He is within us forever. The more we breathe out, the more we can breath in.

*The Holy Spirit is re-freshened within us, like breathing out the old self and breathing in the fresh air of His strength for each new minute we face. It is a constant exchange of breathing out our own desires, control, and inhaling His will, His control and His desires—because it is God’s breath in us. How healing and good is that? You make your own list and let me know what God reveals to you, its beautiful, enjoy it with me.


I think Satan is out to create disunity, delusion and distortion of the Holy Spirit because He is whom Jesus gave us as a gift to us as our helper. Who could not use a helper? We all desperately can use some help! Am I right? Jesus said in John 16:7 it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t the Helper won’t come. If I go away, he will come…” another word for helper here has the idea of a counselor. How helpful would a hotline to a counselor be for you? I would love it! I have it! I have to by faith breathe that in and ask God for whatever need I may have and believe that God will answer in His words or breath into the Holy Spirit which is in me. I have to listen to know what God has to say. How unifying is that—we all breathe, all ages, all races, all countries—all-living!


So much of the time we have these clogs that we cannot hear through or blockages that distort or deafen God’s voice to us. Sometimes it’s ignorance or wrong thinking or sin that keeps us out of touch with reality of who He is. I hear in word pictures as I listen, and evidently, I have made some really inaccurate pictures that explained what I told myself. I would hear “be filled with the Spirit” and I would make up things that could be filled to demonstrate that in my head. I tried a tank. Like gas in a car, I tried filling up on the Spirit and ran my life until He was all used up. Unfortunately, I had more life than I had tank, and I’d find myself out of gas all the time, needing to haul my sorry self back for a refueling with people going by shaking their heads—poor ignorant thing, didn’t she know she needed gas? She should have stopped sooner. I would think, “How did they not run out, what was wrong with me?” This is not at all scriptural, but rather living in a lie that I had made up as truth. Confusing.


Or I had a bottle picture that I had to fill up. Then, decide when and where I would uncap and use the Holy Spirit and still have enough left for the rest of the day. Like choosing to fill your water bottle and rationing it out all day only when it was really needed—that is not what scripture says about the Holy Spirit—but that is what I was living out. Distorted.


My other picture was a bucket. Scooped up fresh, full, and ready to use but my bucket had holes and I leaked it out and ended up short, empty and dry—unable to patch or even identify all the holes in my bucket. Not at all what the Bible uses as an illustration of the Holy Spirit. I got nearly delusional with the difficulty of bucket living. What a wonderful welcomed reality was John 20:22 “And he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” How wonderful and how simple—breathe. I can do that without striving.


Do you, like me, have some out dated, early childhood drawings of some tremendous truths that need updating? Why keep those—other than to relate to others—they are useless and you are living from pictures that are not accurate. Let’s open the Bible, dig in, and discover what is really available and ours! Check out the Bible for yourself.


I wondered if it were like being born under the water and living in a world that was not where and how we were made to live? The distorted view and the difficulty it would take. But upon becoming believers you were transported to this world where you could breathe freely and wholly, able to move about in freedom. What a new life that would be! The Bible likens it to living in darkness and being transported into light—imagine how glorious that would be! That is what a difference we can live in, the light of a personalized light within us, “His word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path”. Psalms119:105 It brings light—even the very first words spoken by God is “let there be light” Genesis 1: 3 It is His very first breath we have recorded; the very thing the breath of God desires for us is light to know and understand Him through His breath. Perhaps this is over simplified and something you have grasped and lived in all along—God bless you. But perhaps some of you have been making up some pictures that need some revising and an accurate edition. As we read, study, and hear from God, may we know Him better, clearer, and in truth. May we never hesitate or hold on to misconceptions, traditions, and deceit, but be eager to understand, unite, and cling to truth.


My prayer is: True Lord Jesus, may we know all that You really are. Free us from the lies that we have heard or have told ourselves that are not truth. Reveal Yourself to us. As we see error, give us desire and willingness to grab onto truth and realign ourselves with You. Show us where we are off the mark. Satan often makes the lies so close to truth that it is just a shadow of the truth and not a bold face lie, so give us clear vision, and don’t let us settle for anything less than truth. Help us to walk in that truth that will go from our heads to our hearts and pump life and health into all that we are. In the mighty name of Jesus, would you come and fill every breath and change us from the inside out. May we better friends, better moms, better wives, better women, a better church and a better community because you are breathing in and through us. All glory, praise, and honor to God and peace be on us. Your Kingdom come, and Your will be done. Amen.