Soul to soul - Sunday Leftovers

This past Sunday's sermon was chiefly focused on the sixteenth verse of Romans eight which, in the New Living Translation, reads, "For His Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children."

Some translations of the Bible render that verse, "God's Spirit bears witness with our spirit..." Personally, I like the NLT's rendering the best, "His Holy Spirit speaks deep in our hearts..." From either, though, the point is clear - God longs to communicate with us, and does so at a deep level alternately referred to as our spirit or the depth of our heart.

In connection with this, I strongly believe that humans possess a sixth sense beyond the five physical senses, and with this additional sense we are able to communicate with God. The Bible refers to it as faith - a deep conviction or confidence that something is so. I also believe that the part of us that Paul called "spirit" or "deep in our heart" is the seat of that sense.

One other thing that I believe in regard to this subject is that God communicates with each of us in ways specific to our personality or nature. While we all share the common need and desire to intimately connect with God, the ways we make that connection are as varied as we. Thankfully, God loves us enough to learn a whole lot of love-languages.

The book of Acts is a compelling book which makes the above point abundantly clear. It records in vivid detail the first three decades of the Christian church's life. In it there are multiple accounts of the Spirit of God engaging individuals and/or multitudes. While some commonalities are discernible, the clearer point is the amazing differences in the many stories. Again and again, God profoundly connected with His early followers. Again and again, He did so in distinct ways; ways that no doubt were His gracious accommodation to the distinctiveness of those He was connecting with.

My encouragement this past Sunday was for all of us to ask God to sensitize us in regards to His ''voice'' and to help us be more aware and in touch with that place called "deep in our heart." My encouragement today is don't stress about this; instead, relax, pray the prayer sincerely and then leave the welcome mat out and your heart's front door unlocked. As Frederick Buechner said, "If you pray for anything other than God, you may or may not get it, but if you pray for God, you will always receive what you pray for."

Stan