sacred strokes

I am 5 days away from the due date for my first child, and so I have by this point become quite accustomed to the kicks, movements, and full body hurls taking place inside my body. They prompt me into a quick response, either stretching back to give him (and my ribs) more space, changing my sitting position, or holding my belly to keep him somewhat centered instead of protruding seemingly halfway out one side of my abdomen. His jostlings make me move and, frankly, I would be left quite uncomfortable if I did not respond accordingly each time.

As I was reflecting on this, it occurred to me that this is not the first experience I have had when something else living inside me prompted me to action, to move, to do something! Jesus promised us in John 14:15-17, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” In Ezekiel 36:26-27, the Lord tells us, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules.” And 1 Corinthians 6:19 affirms that the believer’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within us, whom we have from God.

So, as a Christian, when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, His Holy Spirit came into my being and took up residence in me. If you have accepted the salvation of Jesus, this has happened for you, too! And because of this, there are times when He moves and I cannot help but respond, or else I become uncomfortable, feeling restricted and even wrong knowing that I am holding Him back from moving in me the way He wants to at that moment. Thessalonians 5:19 tells us in the NIV, “Do not quench the Spirit.” In other versions, it reads, “Do not extinguish the Spirit.,” “Do not stifle the Spirit.,” or “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.” The active directive here would be to allow the Spirit to move, give it room to breathe, allow its flame to spread. I know how it feels to not respond to a 6-8 pound little human when he’s feeling stifled; I can imagine it is a much more intense discomfort if the Spirit is feeling stifled!

When I consider the active little human in my womb and compare his movements with the stirrings of the Spirit in my soul, I find that there are so many parallels. It’s like pregnancy has allowed me to physically feel something similar to what we as Christians spiritually feel when the Spirit is moving in us. Here are some comparisons:

There is an awareness of the movement.

I am super aware of this baby’s movements. When he moves, it is hard to ignore. I literally have no idea when this kid is going to move again, or what he will do from minute to minute, but every time he does, I know it. He is entirely separate from me, although intricately tied to my very being, which is a beautiful mystery. He is dependent on me and I love him like crazy.

When the Spirit moves, it is likewise very difficult to ignore. We have no control over what He is planning, but we can choose to respond accordingly and be a part of it. John 3:5-8 is when Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” Because of His Spirit, we are intricately tied to Him, and we are dependent on Him. And, you guessed it, He loves us like crazy.

The movements are unmistakable.

When the baby moves, I know for sure that it is not some other organ in my body or function in one of my systems. It is undeniably him. But it didn’t start out that way. When he was smaller, newer, there were times I wasn’t 100% sure it was him or not. But, the longer he has been in there, growing bigger and stronger each day, the more I have been able to distinguish between what are my own body’s movements or sounds and what are his. Now, it is very obvious and others can even see when he is moving inside of me!

The Spirit is much the same way. Perhaps at first, we have a hard time knowing whether something is more of us or of the Spirit living in us. Which one of us is reigning? Where did that one idea come from? But the longer we have Him living in us, the bigger and stronger He becomes in our lives, the easier it will be for us to discern when it is Him moving, or if it is something more motivated by our own wants, desires, needs. And others will notice, too. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, as we are told in Galatians 5:22-23. And Matthew 7:15-20 affirms that someone’s fruit in life is the proof in the pudding, so to speak. If we ever are uncertain about what we think the Spirit is saying or doing, we can always, always turn to Scripture because He will never go against His Word. We can also seek guidance and counsel from fellow believers and pray for God to give us a sure, clear answer, much like Gideon did with the fleece in Judges 6:36-40.

Sometimes the movements are painful.

Usually, the movements cause me great joy.  Then there are times when the baby moves inside of me that make me wish I could just push him right back into a position that is more comfortable for me. His butt up in my rib cage doesn’t work too well for me, thank you very much. It makes me want to position him in the way that is best suited for my needs and what I am okay with on my end. But it doesn’t work like that. And at the end of the day, even though some of the movements are painful or not what I would prefer, I am thankful for them because it means that he is still alive and active and well.

When it comes to the Holy Spirit, there are also times when He moves that may be painful for us in ways. Things we wouldn’t have planned or wanted in our sinful human state, things we may not understand yet, things that are just plain hard to digest given our preferences and biases and opinions. I think of the times in Scripture, like in Judges 3:10, when the Spirit of the Lord comes on someone and prompts them to war. But when He moves, even when He moves us to do something out of our comfort zone, we can still be thankful and appreciative because it means that He lives in us and wants to use us for His glory.

When there is movement inside, there is movement outside.

When the baby inside of me stretches out, wiggles his whole body, kicks into my ribs, it makes me move as well in order to accommodate him. He makes me move! If I didn’t react to these stirrings, I’d be left super uncomfortable and sore. When I don’t respond to his movements, it ends up being hard on me and I’m the one who suffers for my lack of willingness to be budged.

Likewise, when the Spirit is moving us to do something, prompting us to an act of praise or service for the Lord or for others, we’ve gotta move! Galatians 5:25 encourages us, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” When we don’t, we feel a sense of discomfort. Call it conscience or whatever you will, but when we realize the Spirit has been asking us to do something and we have just pushed it aside, tried to ignore it, we will have a sense of disquiet and conviction because of our lack of willingness to be budged. Again, the longer and stronger He is living inside of us, the harder it becomes to not respond when He is on the move!

As I realize how promptly I respond to my son’s stirrings in my womb, I am convicted by the notion that I may not be so quick to respond to the Spirit’s stirrings in my soul. Am I as aware and receptive to His movements? Do I recognize them for what they are? Do I try to ignore them? If I am confused or concerned about something I am sensing from Him, do I reach out in prayer and conversation and dig deep in His Word to test and discern? Am I thankful with excited anticipation when I sense that He is moving, that He could be using me for His glorious purpose?

Romans 5:5 says, “Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Am I living out the overflowing hope and love which result from allowing the Spirit to have His way in my life? I pray that I can become not just stirred by the Holy Spirit, not just moved, but jostled even out of my sleep in order to carry out His will. This child can wake me right out of a sound sleep. He can affect the decisions I make. He can occupy much of my thought life if I am questioning what he is doing and whether I need to act on it. But am I allowing the Lord to do the same?

2 Corinthians 3:17, HLC