Are you Connected?

join me on Facebook, 1 pm EST today, THRIVEOC

Listen along here:  https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/546f1497/are-you-connec...

Connectivity and maintaining relationship is vital for life. Loneliness and isolation in our world is at epidemic levels, leading to greater and more disastrous woes. Social media deludes young people into thinking they are engaged with people, but theirs is a connection with a flat screen or device, not really a person they can see and touch . . . better yet, hug.

And how about divine connectivity?   Well, it is life giving, perhaps even lifesaving.

Consider this for a little context please:

When the California government closed our churches in 2020, I took my Bible study group online, teaching from a Facebook platform. [do you know many times people have said, 'oh well, I'd like to watch, but I don't do Facebook--actually, I hate it.' Here's the thing, Friends - if you had not yet noticed, in many aspects of life, we are not in control, though in our minds we delude ourselves into thinking we are. how's that working for you? None of us planned on 9/11 changing the face of travel, freedom and perceived safety. None of us could imagine such a thing as an epidemic changing how we felt about our need to get toilet paper! Heck, I remember the first time I was in the grocery store near my home in Southern California. I was just standing there looking at the long lines at each register--carts filled with water bottles and toilet paper. Do you remember? 'Live-streaming Bible study? yes, its free on a Facebook platform!]

So back to 2020, (sorry about that squirrel that ran by)... as I prayed, I remember telling the Lord, 'we cannot just get by, we cannot barely eke out our existence daily--no, through You, we must flourish, Lord. Walking with You, Lord, we surely must thrive!

Then I took the word thrive and made an acronym out of it, giving it greater meaning.

‘ T ’ is for trust--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.  

T rust God fully

H oly Spirit - Get to Know the Holy Spirit

Read God’s Word -

Intentional - be Intentional, all day long

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,

  so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” ¹

A number of years ago, in a galaxy far, far away - okay, maybe in Dana Point, California, I was teaching the Bible one Thursday morning, 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, the day we marked last Sunday!’ ⁴  No, Ma’am, not exactly.  From that momentous day in Jerusalem, 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit came to indwell believers of Jesus.  

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

--his 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.  

Not so different than you, I can easily recall some very dark times in my life. In one of those times about 36 years ago, I remember thinking - 'I do not want to just sleepwalk through my life, though times are so hard. I do not want to live each day somehow, but rather, I want to live each day victoriously. My inner mantra became 'not somehow, but victoriously!'

Friends, I am connected with a number of dire situations, that absent a move of God and the presence of God, are hopeless. Perhaps that is also you right now. Listen to me: through the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, and staying connected with him, you too can live not somehow, but victoriously, right now, today.

You are invited to join me at 1 pm today on Facebook, group: THRIVEOC, as I teach on the power that is meant to be yours and mine. join me live!!

Listen, sing! Alive and Breathing, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYUJjsgd96k

T.H.R.I.V.E., Friend!

Christine Todd DiGiacomo

PastorWoman.net

^{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}