Connectivity and maintaining it is so vital to not feeling desperately alone right now. Whether it is talking on the phone or seeing one another on Zoom or Google Team – heck, I’m even teaching on Facebook Live, it is so critical! We know folks are around, but connecting with them is so important, maybe more than ever before.
And divine connectivity? Well, it is life giving, perhaps even lifesaving.
‘T’ is Trust God fully, which we can do because he is able to do more than we could ever ask or think or imagine, and he will do just that because he wants to and he’s God!
‘H’ in THRIVE is for the Holy Spirit, who makes our connection with God possible.
again, the acronym Trust God fully
get to know the Holy Spirit
Read God’s Word
Be Intentional
Value every day, giving God thanks
Exercise daily (outside, if possible)
If we could see the Trinity, even if I could include pictures of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in this briefing, we could better grasp them. But since no pictures are available for any of the three, we grow to understand God by what the Bible tells us about the unique personalities and functions of each of the Trinity.
Ah, there it is already. What Paul wrote to Timothy, his young protégé, that ‘the words of scripture were divinely inspired’, he was explaining that the words were literally breathed out by the Holy Spirit of God. (function)
“All Scripture is God-breathed (divinely inspired) and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”1
About five years ago, I was teaching Bible study and made the statement that ‘Jesus is the only person ever born who was already alive’. I distinctly remember how that confounded one woman – ‘wait, how is that possible?’ she asked. Here’s the confusion: it might seem that Jesus came to be when he was born of Mary as a baby. That is not the case. Jesus is eternal—he has always been and always will be. In fact, Paul explained to the Colossians that it was Jesus who created,2 as the Psalmist said, ‘By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.’3
And the Holy Spirit? ‘Well, he was born on the Day of Pentecost, of course!’4 No, Ma’am, not exactly. From that momentous day forward, however, he came to indwell believers of Jesus Christ. Check this out: Christianity is the only religion where God came to man (Jesus as Savior), and the only one who died for his followers, only to be resurrected, and the only faith in which God lives in the souls of believers forevermore.
The Holy Spirit, like the Son of God, is eternal and equal in all ways with the Father and Son.
Enough theology right now … but an important baseline to establish.
In order to T.H.R.I.V.E., it is invaluable for you to know and be aware of the Holy Spirit—his heart toward you, actions on your behalf and even his sometime mysterious behavior. In these words of Jesus on the night of the Last Supper, after he had told his disciples that he would be leaving them, we see the working of all three of the Godhead. “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”5
Does it comfort you to know that there is one who regularly takes your needs and requests before the Father in prayer, literally going to bat for you? It is this very verse that made me fall so in love with the Holy Spirit: “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”6
Understanding just these three actions of the Holy Spirit informs my mind and my spirit:
He teaches us
He reminds us of what Jesus said and taught
He prays for us to the Father, things we have not even expressed in words!
Be encouraged, Friend. God is FOR you, as we so clearly see in his Word. And the Holy Spirit enables us to stay divinely connected to him at all times. T.H.R.I.V.E., Friend!
Christine Todd DiGiacomo
1 – 1 Timothy 3.16-17
2 – Colossians 1.16
3 – Psalm 33.6,9
4 – Acts 2.4
5 – John 14.26
6 – Romans 8.26, ESV
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