The Accountable Holy Spirit

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve spoken. I was the first person to speak on this stage once we redid it, but when I spoke on it, it was all wood still. So now it’s completely gray, and I feel like I stand out even more, because I’m just this bright white subject in the middle of this dark stage. So it’s a little awkward, but I’m here. I’m in the spotlight.

But the last time that we were gathered together at church, it was actually Pastor Jay that spoke, and we’ve been in a series about the Holy Spirit. Everybody say, “The Holy Spirit.”

I was at a friend’s birthday party yesterday. He’s my age, so it’s a little weird to say that — I feel like only kids have birthday parties — but it was his golden birthday, so it was kind of a big deal. His wife organized it, and I went there, and I saw an old friend of mine that used to work with me at Starbucks, who is now also a pastor. I don’t want to say his name — and you’re just looking at me like, I probably know him. You do. He was catching up with me, and I told him we’re in a series right now about the Holy Spirit. He asked me what I was speaking on today, and I said, “I feel like I’m running out of ideas, because Jay has been speaking about the Holy Spirit for so long now.” And he told me, “If you’re running out of ideas about the Holy Spirit, you don’t know Him well enough yet.”

And I was like, that’s a good point. It was an encouraging word. This is a pastor friend of mine speaking to me, a pastor, right? So he was encouraging me on what to do if I feel like I’m not sure how to organize this message. And sure enough, as soon as I really got down into it and started writing this out, I really feel like today we’re talking about the accountable Holy Spirit. Everybody say, “The accountable Holy Spirit.”

Where we’ve been: a new heart

So that is going to be today’s message. But if you weren’t here last week, we do kind of need to connect the dots and provide a little bit of context, because as always I feel like our series kind of bleed into one another. Last week we were talking about the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. We’re going to start with Romans 8:13. If you do not have it, that is okay. We’ll have it on the screen for you. I’m reading out of the New King James Version for all of our Scriptures today.

Romans 8:13 says this: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” And so we learn from this that if we’re struggling with sins of the flesh — whether they be things like anger, wrath, lust, greed, envy, pride, all of these things that are sinful parts of our flesh — living that way can lead to death.

However, we’ve also learned that we can put those things to death, that we’re instructed to put those things to death. I feel like that was a little bit of a revelation for me, because I’m so used to thinking that only God can do that battle for me. And yet the word here specifically says that we are to put those things to death. But notice it says we put those things to death by the Spirit. It says in the middle of verse 13 there — I don’t know where I missed that, apparently — “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” And so even though we’re the ones that have to make that conscious choice, it is by the Spirit that those things are put to death. It is by the Spirit that those ways of living are put to death, and we are then transformed. Everybody say, “Transformed.” That’s the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, where we get to live an abundant life because of what He’s doing in us.

We also learned that sometimes our hearts can become hard towards God specifically, and we can develop what Scripture calls a stony heart. This can happen when we spend too much time in our own world, consumed by our own worries, our own fears, our own concerns, our own anxious thoughts, our own agenda, and we’re trying to solve all of those things by ourselves rather than looking to God.

And I feel like this is actually a really dangerous trap, because it can feel like you’re not necessarily doing anything wrong. Maybe you’re living a life where you are connected to God, where you are praying, you’re reading your Bible. But then you’re just going through life, and natural things will happen, and there’s things that you are concerned about or anxious about. And naturally — I don’t know about you guys, but I try to solve those things by myself rather than bringing those things to God. It’s like I get in the word, I read the word, I connect with God, and then when I have my problems, I just try to fix them myself rather than bringing them to the Lord.

And by doing that, the danger is you can actually start to develop a hard heart towards God. Why? Because when you start to do things your own way, it’s like you’re reading all of the goodness and the promises of who He is and declaring out the faithfulness of who He is, and then experiencing any kind of hardship in your life and not really seeing that come to pass — not realizing that if you would just focus on Him, you can actually bring those things to Him, and He will help you through that situation. Does that make sense, the difference there?

This is touched on in Ezekiel 36:26–27. It says, “I will give you a new heart” — everybody say, “New heart” — “and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” If we pause there, it’s really interesting to me that He says He will give us a heart of flesh, not a heart of the spirit. This is a heart of flesh, which means even if you feel like you don’t know Jesus yet, this is a concept that you can be familiar with. He’s giving you a new heart. And why is it a heart of flesh? It’s something that is soft. It is moldable. It is teachable. It is something that can be worked on by the Holy Spirit. Does that make sense? And so we are transformed from the inside out.

Verse 27 says, “I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them.” In other words, when He gives us this new heart, that means that it is ripe for the Spirit to do a work in. It is not hard. And so as we spend more time with Him, as we look to Him, as we bring things to Him, He is teaching and shaping and molding our heart for Him to do a work out of.

Pastor Jay said it this way: that it will happen by the Holy Spirit, and out of this heart obedience will be birthed. I love the way he said that, because in my mind it’s so common for me to think, if I’m obeying the Lord, that is a conscious decision that I just need to try hard at. I’m doing my best to stay out of trouble. I’m putting in my best effort to obey the Lord. But this tells us that it’s by the Spirit that our heart is transformed, and out of that transformation obedience is birthed, like it’s an automatic process that is going to happen. And so by drawing near to Him, that’s how we experience that transformation.

He also said when we fellowship with Jesus, we are fellowshipping with everything that He is. This makes sense, right? Because when you are hanging out with somebody, you tend to all of a sudden start saying things the same way as them, or adapt their mannerisms. Or somebody moves somewhere for a while and they come back, and you might notice that they’re developing an accent or something like that, right? Things can rub off on you depending on your influences around you.

And so with Jesus, when we fellowship with Him, not only are we just hanging out with Jesus, we’re fellowshipping with everything that He is. That means you’re fellowshipping with things like joy, peace, love, grace, truth, freedom from the bondage of sin. And the best way to overcome sin is to continue doing just that: continue fellowshipping with Jesus. Continue getting into your word, praying to Him, asking Him those questions, going into times of worship, actually declaring His truth out loud in everyday conversation with people, doing the things that require knowing Him. You with me? That’s how we actually overcome the sin — not just by trying harder not to sin, but by fellowshipping with Jesus and therefore having everything that He is, since He put sin to death, rub off on us. And that’s the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

When the joy was gone

So we talked about that all last week, but this week we’re talking about the accountable Holy Spirit. Again, everybody say, “The accountable Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit wants to keep us accountable to the things of God. But there’s so much more in that statement that I’ve been learning in my own practical life, because the Holy Spirit is helping me just practice accountability, even in my everyday relationships.

The whole reason that this process of writing this message came about was actually a couple weeks ago. I’ve been in a time where — it’s not like anything bad is happening or anything like that, but it’s been a busy summer. We’ve gotten very used to going through the motions in our everyday life, my wife and I. And I felt a little bit down lately, not really getting satisfaction or joy out of things like ministry like I was before. I wasn’t really getting fulfillment from the job that I once enjoyed, and it felt more like a grind every day. And I was like, man, something’s missing. I don’t know what it is, but something’s missing.

And so one of these days I was feeling really down, and I decided I’m going to go disc golfing, because that’s all I’ve done this summer, and that’s something that cheers me up. But even on the way there I was like, okay, I’m going to put some fun music on. That wasn’t working. Listen to a comedy podcast. That wasn’t working. Listen to a fantasy football podcast, and that just made me stressed, because I realized I’m not ready for the season coming up. And I was like, I can’t do that right now. So nothing was working.

And then I realized I just need the word. I just need to read the word right now. That should have been my first go-to, and it wasn’t. But I just need the word. And so I read the word while I was driving — but not actually reading while I was driving. I put the audio version of the word on and had the Bible app read to me. I went to our Solid Life reading plan. By the way, if you don’t know, that’s what I feel like most people in our congregation are currently reading. The Solid Life reading plan is on the Bible app. It’s within our journals, if you need one.

And it happened to be that day’s reading was John 16, and it’s verses 16 through 21 that I want to highlight to you guys. This is before Jesus was put on the cross. He’s still with His disciples, and He’s preparing them for what’s to come. Because Jesus was not caught off guard by being put on the cross, right? He knew this was coming. He was preparing for it, and He wanted to prepare His disciples for what was to happen and what was to come and the reason why it was happening. This was within that preparation.

Starting at verse 16 of John chapter 16, it says this — this is Jesus speaking: “A little while, and you will not see me; and again a little while, and you will see me, because I go to the Father.” He’s referring to His ascension after He’s put to death and has a resurrection. Verse 17 says this: “Then some of His disciples said among themselves, ‘What is this that He says to us, “A little while, and you will not see me; and again a little while, and you will see me”; and, “because I go to the Father”?’ They said therefore, ‘What is this that He says, “A little while”? We do not know what He is saying.’” Verse 19: “Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, ‘Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, “A little while, and you will not see me; and again a little while, and you will see me”? Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.’”

And then He uses this analogy to drive it home a little bit in verse 21: “A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.” Verse 22: “Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”

It goes on, but that was the part that really stuck out to me when I was listening to this audio version of the Bible — specifically when it said, “your joy no one will take from you.” And so I went disc golfing, and I was just processing it. And then I realized, yeah, I just felt like I didn’t have the joy that I was promised — or I shouldn’t even say that I was promised — the joy that I had experienced before, that I know comes from the Lord.

People who will tell you the truth

And so I feel like there’s so many different things that you should be doing in those situations — obviously always looking to Jesus. But I feel like one of the most valuable things that you can do as a Christian when you’re in these kinds of hardship times is to have people that you can go to and be accountable with. I don’t know if you guys are in small groups or if you have friends that you go to and you pray with, whatever it may be. But it’s always good also to have spiritual elders, people that you look up to, that you feel are just at that next level with God. And for me, that happens to be Pastor Jay and Suzie.

So I went to Pastor Jay and just shared with him everything that was going on. He always gives me really good advice. In my relationship with Jay and Suzie — because I’ve known them since I was a teenager, they knew me when I was a rebellious teenager — they’re kind of parental figures without being parents. They’re in that in-between of being pastors, older brothers and older sisters, and parents. Somewhere in between there; they’re kind of a mix of all of it.

So anyways, I say all that to say I went to Pastor Jay, I shared everything that was on my heart, and he gave me very gentle, good advice and answers. And I just felt like I needed something that was a little bit more of a punch. I needed to just be told the truth. So I went to Suzie, because I knew Pastor Suzie would just tell me how it is and be like, “You really just need to get it together and get with the Lord.” I knew that Pastor Suzie would ultimately tell me, “You really just need to be with Jesus.”

But she did — I mean, I sat with her, I had coffee with her, she heard me out. She actually listened to everything I was at and sympathized with me and heard me and understood me. But ultimately it led to, yeah, you need to be with the Lord more. As we talked about with the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, your heart can get hard towards God when you are trying to handle situations and hardships in your life on your own, and He wants to actually give you a new heart, right? And so ultimately it’s a heart issue. I realized that after I talked with Suzie, but that didn’t really solve the problem necessarily.

Ask, and you will receive

And I told Suzie that I kept spending time in John 16. I don’t think this will be on the screen, but in that same exact chapter, verse 23, Jesus says this to His disciples while He’s still preparing them: “And in that day you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”

So when I read that, I realized, you know, I’m not waiting for Jesus to be put on the cross. That’s all happened already. I am now in the time where He is reigning victorious as King, right? And so this word does apply to me. And so I don’t know why I’m not asking things in Jesus’ name of the Father. I’m in these situations and hardships, feeling a lack of joy, whatever it may be, and I don’t know why I’m not bringing that to the Father and asking in His name. So I kind of left thinking, okay, I need to be closer to Jesus, like Pastor Suzie told me to. But I also thought, okay, I’m not really asking enough of the Lord.

And when I really sat there and thought about it, I’m like, okay, there’s no reason that I shouldn’t be asking things of the Lord. However, now that I’ve realized that, and I’m motivated to be praying and asking of Him, I don’t know how to pray. I realized I didn’t necessarily know, other than asking for help and for my joy to be restored. I didn’t know what else to pray.

And so what I did — because I have the Holy Spirit in me, and I’m very familiar with the Holy Spirit at this point in time, and He is a helper — I started praying in my spiritual language. I started praying in tongues. And Romans 8:26 is the reason that I started doing that, because if I ever don’t know what to pray, this is what I do. Romans 8, verse 26: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Which means — it says it straight up there — in my time of weakness I didn’t know how to pray, and I leaned on the Holy Spirit, and He interceded for me, right?

It goes on in verse 27: “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” That’s the second part that’s really important in here. We’re not just talking about praying and having the Holy Spirit help us out to make us feel better. He’s interceding for us because He knows the will of God and the way that we can be equipped best in that moment that lines up with the will of God. Not what we think is going to solve it — just as was shared earlier in worship — not what we think is going to be best for our situations, not what we feel like we need to focus on. He’s going to intercede for us according to the will of God. Amen. It says it right in His word. And then verse 28: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

The state of your own house

So when I read that, and realized that there’s a lot that I want to be praying for but I don’t know what to ask, I just began praying in tongues, in my spiritual language, having the Holy Spirit intercede for me. And as I continued to do that for, I want to say, 15, 20 minutes — it was a lot of praying — I really only got one phrase, and it was: “You don’t know the state of your own house.” And I was like, what does that mean? So I had Jesus telling me, “You don’t know the state of your own house,” and I didn’t necessarily know what that meant. But I was pretty sure it wasn’t just talking about my actual house. I was pretty sure it was talking about this body, the temple that has the Holy Spirit.

However, I don’t know how you guys are with the Lord, but oftentimes I’ll find things in my real life that perfectly align with what He wants to do in my spirit, as a teaching moment. And funnily enough — my wife’s not in here, she’s in kids’ church right now, but she would be agreeing with this story — after I prayed that, I hadn’t even told her or anything, but I went downstairs. It was the morning time, and I saw two or three flies in our kitchen. And I was like, that’s not abnormal, but I’m a really clean guy, and there’s not normally flies in our house. So three is a little bit of a red flag to me. So I killed them, whatever. Saw another one above the sink. I was like, that’s weird. Not fruit flies — house flies. Killed it.

And then I went into the garage, and as soon as I opened the garage, the light that was on top of our garage — I saw at least 20 or 30 flies surrounding it. And I was like, that’s disgusting. I was very off. And I know there were 20 or 30, because I do exaggerate, but I took a picture and then I counted, right? Because I went to tell my wife, “There’s like 20 or 30 flies in there.” And my wife says that whenever I tell a story, whatever I say that involves a number is actually half of what I said. And that usually ends up to be true. But anyways, I’m like, I promise you there’s 20 or 30 flies in there.

I open the garage door, look at the window in our garage, and I’m seeing a ton of flies around there too. So now we’re up to like 50 or 60 flies, and I’m like, I don’t know what’s going on. Well, when we first moved into our condo, I noticed that we had this window in our garage that we never used. The blinds were down, and they were just covered in dust and cobwebs. And I told my wife, “That’s the first thing I’m cleaning as soon as we’re done unpacking.” And I never did it. So it’s just sat there with dirt and dust and cobwebs for years now, even before we moved in.

And I went over there and hit it as many times as I could with a fly swatter just to get them all to scatter, and then I spent some time cleaning it. When I got all the flies out, I just continued on my day. I think I was actually working at the church that day. So I came to church, worked, went back home for lunch, and noticed there’s like 40 flies at the window again. Killed them all. Went disc golfing, came back, 40 flies again. And man, I cleaned the crap out of that window. It was the cleanest window I’ve ever seen in my life, and they just kept coming back.

And so I Googled it and did some research, because I didn’t know what’s going on, but I felt like the Lord was trying to tell me something. And I’m not one of those people that’s just going to automatically assume anything that’s happening in your life is from the Lord. If I’m walking down the street and I trip a little bit, I’m not going to assume that He’s teaching me a lesson. I’m assuming I’m clumsy, because I am, right? So I’m not really the type of person to always automatically tie it. But I did feel like the Lord was teaching me something.

So I did some research. They’re called cluster flies. I guess they’re common around windows, specifically in attics and everything. So I got some fly traps, cleaned the window as best I could, and they’re starting to be reduced now. But I realized, I didn’t know that they were there. I didn’t know they were there. I didn’t know the state of my own house. I’m one of the cleanest people that I know, and I didn’t know the state of my own house, and this huge pestilence was happening, right?

And so as I was praying, I was like, okay, I feel like I’m actually understanding this a little bit better. I feel like I’m having things revealed to me that the Holy Spirit wants to show me. He said I don’t know the state of my own house. So then I prayed that He would show me the state of my own house — not only at home in real life, but the state of my temple, right? The things that are going on in my heart, things that have hardened towards God. So we’ve been working through that, and He’s been showing me more and more and more, and I’ve been bringing those things to Him and asking for help. And I just feel like it’s kind of a cleaning-out process.

But it’s one of those things that I think is so sneaky, that can automatically just sneak up on you. Related to our house as well — we’re looking at ripping out all of our carpet right now, because our cat peed on a bunch of it, and I didn’t know that for the longest time. We have a guest room, and it’s just my wife and I, so he’d be going in there and peeing, and we never knew. And it wasn’t until one day I went in there and smelled it and realized it. But that’s my own house, right? That’s my own possession that I have a responsibility to keep.

And it’s really the same with our own heart and the same with our own body. We have a responsibility to know what is going in. We have a responsibility to know the maintenance of it. We have a responsibility to know when it’s time to actually clean it out. We have a responsibility to know the things that are influencing it. We have a responsibility to keep that eye on it and maintain it, not just live in it and go day by day. We have a responsibility to know the state of our own house. And if you don’t know the state of your own house, spiritually speaking, the Holy Spirit is here to help.

Asking according to His will

So as I began to unpack those things and discover what the Holy Spirit wanted to remove in me and change, I realized that to remove them, I needed God’s help. I needed the Lord’s help, just as we spoke about last week, right? It’s the Lord that removes sin. And so I needed help. I needed to be transformed from the inside out. I needed His strength, His truth, His favor, and His faith. And so those are the things that I asked for in prayer.

And if you’re like me, you have a hard time asking for things from God specifically. I feel like I don’t do it very often. I usually pray for other people, or I pray that God would do His will in our city and all this stuff. And then when it comes to my own personal life — I don’t know if it’s just subconsciously I don’t think I deserve it, or if I just think I can handle it on my own — but I have a hard time asking things of the Lord.

But I don’t know why myself or anybody else would have a hard time asking for things from the Lord, because if you would open His word, it tells you in so many different places that we are to be asking of Him. Matthew 7:7–8 says this: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone” — everyone say, “Everyone” — “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

We’re going to do a lightning round. We’re going to do more Scripture here. John 16:23–24 — we were just reading out of John 16. That’s what I had my whole revelation in; that’s what started this process. But 23 and 24 say, “And in that day you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” It doesn’t say that your joy will be filled a little bit. It says that your joy will be full when you ask in Jesus’ name to the Father.

Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” I share this almost every single time that I preach, but when I was a kid and I read that, I read that you delight in the Lord and He will give you everything that you want, whether that’s a bunch of money or a brand-new car or a bunch of toys. I remember hearing that in my Catholic church and thinking, I can get whatever I want; I just have to delight in the Lord, whatever that means. I don’t think I knew what it meant. But that’s not what it’s saying.

Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart means that when you delight in Him, when you know Him, when we’re doing the things that Pastor Jay was speaking about — fellowshipping with Jesus and also fellowshipping with everything that He is — your heart begins to change and shift and become soft and be replaced with the things that He cares about. Why is that important? Because we talked about how you can pray, and you should be praying, and you should be asking of the Lord — but you should be doing it as it aligns with His will. Amen. When you are asking for things from the Lord and receiving from Him, it should align with His will, not our own will. His will. But you can turn yours into His will if you would delight in Him, and He gives you those desires of your heart.

Romans 12:2 — this is my life verse. I feel like I’m still young enough where maybe that will change, but this has been my life verse since I was born again. Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” — everybody say, “Renewing of your mind” — “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Why? This part’s important: “that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

We’re transformed by renewing our mind to the likeness of Jesus Christ, so that we would know the will of God for our life, so that when we ask for things in prayer and declare out His truth and everything like that, it aligns with God’s will. Why? Because then that allows God to move in and do the things that He wants done in your life, because you’re asking for them. He wants them to happen for you, and you’re stepping out in faith and obedience for them to happen. Does that make sense? You with me?

It’s important to know His will, and it’s important to know that we don’t just ask things of the Lord willy-nilly, but we’re doing it according to His will. Now, if you don’t know His will, I would still prefer that you pray, even if you feel like you’re not sure what to pray about. But that part is important. We just learned last week about the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, and you cannot know the will of God, I believe, without first being transformed by Him. It starts with Him. And if you get into His word and you understand the will of God, you will begin to be transformed from the inside out, simply by getting into His word.

I think sometimes, though, we go backwards, and we ask for things from God because we need help in our own lives, on our own path, instead of walking the path that He’s guiding us on and asking for help on His path, right? Sometimes we kind of go backwards in this process.

And so, as I shared, I sat with Pastor Suzie, and she told me how it was. It’s all good. But she gave me good resources too. She sent me some podcasts to listen to — spiritual leaders that she knows and trusts, that love the Lord, and they’re all talking about Jesus. And I was listening to it, and there was a specific pastor on there sharing his testimony, and it was really similar to everything that we’re talking about. He was kind of doing this process backwards, where he was talking about everything that he wanted and things that he felt like he needed from God, things that would solve his problem.

And he said he was really, really frustrated. He was just out on a nature walk, but he was really frustrated — not necessarily with God, but with what was happening in his life — and he wanted God’s help on that. And then he specifically heard the Lord say, “You know, I’m not as bothered by those things as you are. But you’re not as bothered by the things that I’m bothered by.” And I was like, dang, that’s probably true for me too. When I pray to the Lord, He’s probably like, “You know, I’m not really bothered by cat pee in your house. That’s not really a big deal to me. But you’re not that bothered about the things that are bothering me.”

And so when we get into prayer and we understand the Father’s heart more, those are the things that He starts to place into our heart. We start to pray those things out. We start to see ourselves transformed from the inside out. Why? Because we have a heart that the Holy Spirit has given us now, and we are praying the will of God. And then everything in our life will all of a sudden start to click into place, because we are now living God’s will for our life rather than trying our own and trying to fit God into it. Does that make sense?

Be personal with God daily

If you are constantly connecting — not just with Jesus, not just with God, but you are allowing the Holy Spirit to move in and through you — He will keep you accountable to the will of God. He will keep you accountable to those things. And so if there’s anything that you would hear from today that is a practical way to keep accountability with the Holy Spirit, it’s this: take the time daily to be personal with God. Take the time daily to be personal with God.

And — you can come up. I say this just thinking about my relationships with other people. I was so excited to see a bunch of my friends yesterday that I hadn’t seen since I worked at Starbucks with them. But really, a lot of them were acquaintances that I had to catch up with. There was so much life I missed out on. I don’t normally reach out to them and pray and talk with them. And then there’s so many people that are friends that I see every single day, that I’m sharing real life with, right? I’m going to coffee shops and having them tell me, “Yeah, you just need to be with the Lord. You just need to get it together,” right? There’s real friends that I spend personal time with, that I get in the nitty-gritty with, that will pray with me and walk through those dirty and dangerous situations with me, because they know that we’re doing it with the Lord.

And so I think of God almost the same way. He’s not supposed to be this acquaintance that we check in with every now and then and then have to fill in: “Oh, Lord, there’s been so much going on in my life the past few months. It’s just been such a rough season.” He knows. He’s been there. Don’t check in with Him like He hasn’t been there.

I think the best thing that you can practically do to keep accountable to the will of God, and keep accountable with the Holy Spirit helping you through that process, is to take the time to be personal with God daily. Have that personal relationship with Him. Just as I would — I talk to Pastor Suzie probably four, five times a week at this point, maybe sometimes even more. I got a tick bite the other day, and I sent her a picture, and I was like, “Is this a tick bite?” She’s like, “Why are you asking me?” I’m like, “I don’t know, you seem to know everything, so I’m just asking you.” You’re somebody I trust. You’re somebody that helps keep me accountable with the Lord. And I think that’s important to have, not only with people in our own lives, but with the Lord Himself. It is a personal daily relationship. And by doing that, I truly believe that the Holy Spirit helps us keep accountable to the will of God.

So I don’t know where you guys are at right now. I don’t know what’s going on in your life. But as we mentioned this morning, as it’s been mentioned in the newsletter, it’s a season that everybody’s going through right now. There is absolute chaos going on in our world, whether it’s just in the bigger picture of things, whether it’s politically. Again, I shared this this morning, but we don’t get political here at Chapel Valley. But we do say keep your eyes on Jesus, and He will lead you through that process. There’s so much going on that is chaotic, even in personal lives right now.

And what I do know is that we need to be a people that would know the will of God. Because when we know the will of God and we are transformed from the inside out, we can begin to ask and receive from Him and pray out the will of God, to see the atmosphere in our own life shift and see the atmosphere in our personal lives change as well. Amen. We need the Holy Spirit to help us keep accountable, to know the will of God. And so let’s do exactly that. Let’s take the time to be personal with God, just today, right here in this place.

Prayer and response

If you guys would stand with me, if you’re able. I think it’s so important to really posture ourselves before the Lord, in a ready and receiving motion for what He wants to give us.

Father God, I thank You that even when we feel that we can’t hear Your voice, or we’re in a time where we have difficulty hearing Your voice, even in a time where we feel like life is not exactly going the way that we feel You promised it would, I thank You that we always have a way and an access point to You, to figure out what’s going on. Lord, You don’t give us the solution to the problem that is overbearing in our head; You give us the correct solution that we need in that moment, period. Not what we think we need, but what You know that we need.

So God, I pray that You would continue to do work on our hearts, that we would have this transformative power of the Holy Spirit take place in our life, take place in our body, take place in our heart. Lord, that we would know the state of our own house, because the Holy Spirit is somebody that convicts us; He does not condemn us. Condemnation does not come from You. But He convicts us, shows us the areas that need to be cleaned out, shows us the areas that we’ve been neglecting, that are getting out of control. Show us the areas that You want to bring attention to. And it may not even be things that are bad. They may not even be things that are sin. But they can be areas where You want us to shift around priorities.

God, Lord, whatever it is, only You know, and I thank You for that, because then You get all the glory when we see that power come into place. It couldn’t be chalked up to anything else. It couldn’t be chalked up to a good sermon or a good worship service or a good reading plan, necessarily, but it comes straight from You. God, I thank You that Your word is available for us. And I pray that anybody that is struggling to read their word — I pray that You would just come alongside them and help them focus. God, help them receive the things that they should be receiving out of Your word.

Lord, I pray that we would just hear Your voice better as we draw near to You. God, that when we spend our times in prayer and worship, whether we feel it or don’t feel it, it doesn’t matter how long it takes, Lord. What matters is that we have our hearts turned to You and that we’re saying yes to You. And so God, in this place right now, I just pray that You would begin to give us what it is that we are to be receiving, whether that’s a word, whether that’s a moment of peace, whether that’s the hope that somebody came in here looking for. I pray that we would receive those things.

But it’s something that we have to actively choose. And so if you feel like that’s you, I would just encourage really everybody in the room right now to have their hands out in a receiving motion. Through this next time, I’m going to be guiding us in prayer and guiding us to receive that hope. But Lord, I just pray that You would help us stay in this moment as we close out in worship, and that You would be speaking to us throughout this closing worship song, and as I guide us in receiving the things that You want us to receive this morning.

Yes, Lord. We just make room for You to do the things that You want to do in and through our lives, in our hearts. God, I pray for the people that came in specifically searching for hope, Lord, that they would know that they would find it in You. It’s not just here on a Sunday morning. It’s not in a building. It’s not within a certain worship song. It’s specifically with You. And so I pray that we would be a people that receive it.

And so if you would just keep your hands out and receive with me. If you would just pray this out loud, just in a voice loud enough for the person next to you to hear. Just say: Lord, I choose You. Lord, I choose Your ways. Holy Spirit, do a work in my heart. Do a transformative work in my heart. Jesus, I want to know You more. I want to know Your ways. I want to know truth, love, peace, and grace.

Father God, I just pray for everybody in this room, that they would be in a spot where they can start to hear Your word in the way that You want them to — not even in a new way. I feel like I pray that every time for people. I want them to experience Your word in the way that You want them to, God, whatever that looks like. God, I pray that we would be able to receive Your word not only through opening the Bible, but by speaking with one another — those that we trust, those that we see as an accountable person, that we know is going to be with the Lord. Someone that’s not just going to tell us things that are going to make us feel better, or the things that we want to hear, but the things that are going to come from You.

I pray that we would know people that would have that kind of influence in our life, that we would surround ourselves with those people. And if we don’t know them, Father God, would You send those people into our lives, God, that we can be that for them and they can be that for us. God, it says in Your word that people would know that we are Your disciples and Your followers by our love for one another. And I truly believe that that looks like the hard truth sometimes, but the accountable truth, the truth that comes from You and Your will for our lives. And so we need that in our lives.

God, I pray that Your Holy Spirit would search our hearts. And for those that are searching for hope, if you would just say, “I receive hope, in Jesus’ name.” Say, “I receive hope.” Lord, I pray for every single one of us, that we would not be afraid to ask of You, that we would ask in Jesus’ name. But Lord, I pray that we would know Your will for our lives, so as we begin to ask those things, we wouldn’t be in a place where our heart is hardened and against You because we’ve been asking and not receiving, but that we would be in a place knowing Your will and praying those things for our life — praying for things like truth, praying for things like peace, praying for things like hope to enter in.

And so once again — I know I’m harping on this, but I really do truly feel this morning — if you were that person that came in searching for hope, that you would just spend some time with the Lord today and say, “Lord, I need hope in my life. I receive hope.” Because I don’t know what God’s will is for your life specifically, but I do know that He wants you to have that hope, because that hope leads to faith in Him, and that faith leads to that transformative power that only the Holy Spirit can bring.

So Lord, I thank You for the work that You are doing in all of our hearts. I pray that You would be speaking to us throughout the week. And Lord, I just pray that You would speak to us in the way that You want to speak to us through Your word this week. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.