The Gift

Years I ago, I decided to do a Christian ministry of teaching a Bible study to kids in juvenile hall. These were teenage boys sitting in juvenile hall. They had committed crimes such as: murder or grand theft auto. You don’t get put into juvenile hall for shop lifting.

My first night, when I had to lead the Bible study, I was terrified. These were teenage criminals, what could I possibly talk about? How do I get these guys attention and then share the gospel with them? They had probably seen it all. I loved a fairly vanilla lifestyle. A few days before I had to lead the Bible study, I began to pray. I needed God’s help, this really, really scared me.

I prayed all the way to the juvenile hall. I prayed all through the prayer meeting, we began with. I prayed all the way, walking down the hall towards the room of boys. I sat down, then opened in prayer. Then I began to speak. But when I began to speak, something strange happened. I could hear the words coming out of my mouth. But it felt like I was listening to someone else. The fear went away. The boys listened. I finished the lesson with a prayer to lead anyone interested in the Lord.

Before Jesus left the planet He promised us a gift. He promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit. Believers would have the actual person of God living inside them. To work through them, help them, encourage them, and strengthen them.

I think a lot of believers don’t utilize the power of the Holy Spirit. But God gave us the Holy Spirit to help us. He is called our Helper.

Right now, we’ve been having some work down on the outside of our house. They’ve taken down all the siding and put new siding up. Then they filled in all the cracks with caulking. We humans are like the cracked siding. We aren’t perfect, we’ve got a lot of cracks. The Holy Spirit is like the caulking that fills in all the cracks. He comes into the believer and makes us whole.

God knows who we are. He knows how flawed and imperfect we are. He’s not surprised by any of it. God doesn’t expect us to do hard things without Him. He wants us to allow Him in our lives. He’s a gentleman. He won’t intrude into your life. He waits for you to allow Him to work. We don’t need to do anything for God, we need to allow Him to do things in our lives.

Corrie Ten Boom discovered this idea. She was speaking about her testimony and her time in a concentration camp during World War II. After her speech a man came up to speak to her. He was excited to see her, but she was not excited to see him. He was one of the Nazi guards she and been under during her time in the concentration camps. He was excited to see her, because he had become saved since then. When she saw him again, all the rage and bitterness bubbled up in her. He reached out to shake her hand, but Corrie Ten Boom could not shake his hand. She prayed and as she did, she felt a tingling sensation in her hand and she could see her hand raising up to meet the guard’s. She shook it and realized in that moment, God does the work through us. When He asks us to do hard things like forgiving our enemies, God does it through us. It is not by our own power or strength. It is the power of the Holy Spirit through us.

So if you are a believer, allow the Holy Spirit within you to work through you. He will do the hard things through you. His power will be perfected in your weakness. The Holy Spirit is a gift. Allow Him to work through you and be utterly amazed.