Have you ever wondered why you do what you do? Like you brush your teeth in the morning, comb your hair a certain way, or drive with the same hand. The reason is you have a habit. There is a cycle to a habit. There is a cue like the last thing you do before you go to bed is brush your teeth. The cue is it is time to go to bed. Then there is a routine. You will brush your teeth the same way without thinking, this is your routine. Studies show you will actual brush the same number of strokes each time you brush. This is your routine. Then there is the reward… We like the way our teeth feel when we are done. The tingly feeling we get is from chemicals that do not actually help make our teeth cleaner, but toothpaste companies know they will sell more toothpaste if they generate that feeling.
Just like a habit cycle of Cue- Routine- Reward, I have learned there is a Spirit Cycle. When God shows up we often want to know what He wants us to do also known at “His will.”
- Purify our hearts
What He wants to do in us first is purify our hearts, because if we do what He wants but we don’t reflect His Character or if we do it for the wrong reasons.
John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.
Purifying is vulnerable, and being set apart is a process. But it is one of the primary purposes God wants to do when He shows up in your life.
2. Prompt Obedience
God love to speak to His kids. He will do it though scripture, impressions, confirmation, council, and sometimes dreams and visions. Many times God will have something for you to do, and He wants you to obey. This is the Holy Spirit who Guides us.
Acts 16:6 Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time.
God prevented Paul and Silas from preaching the Gospel in a certain area because He wanted them to go somewhere else. God wants to prompt you too.
3. Produce Life
When you allow God to purify you and you promptly obey Him, it will produce life in you and in others. The other side of this is the sin cycle. Which is temptation, an act of sin, and then produces death in you and in others. We like the produce life part, but it begins in the purifying process followed by obedience. God has great things He wants to do through you but it begins when He does something great in you!
So I want to challenge you to pray three dangerous prayers:
- God would you give me your heart
- Prompt me to obey you Holy Spirit
- Produce Life out of me
Recklessly, Obsessively Following Jesus
Brandon Sereg
