Who Do You Trust?

The Spirit calls to me this morning.  The trials and temptations to give knee-jerk reactions to what life brings has  been heavy on my mind. The Spirit speaks through the watches of the night.  The subtlety of His voice calls me into consciousness.

He calls to me and I know I need my first cup of coffee to be alert to what He wants to talk about this morning.  Whispers of His wisdom float through my mind.  "Each trial you face is a test of obedience.  They are not random, they are not coincidence, they are opportunities for refinement through and through".

Right now, life seems like a furnace of intense heat.  Discomfort is all around and from every angle there seems to be some unmitigated disaster. 

Then the Holy Spirit speaks, "You trust Me for eternity, will you trust Me now?"

It's easy to defer trust for the next life when it seems so far off.  But hard to trust for the next step here on earth when the pathway seems so covered by chaos and confusion and uncertainty.  My knee-jerk reaction is self-reliance.  I think I know what I can do, what I can tolerate, what I can manipulate to protect my "comfort zones" at any and all cost.

Heb 11:6, "Without faith it is impossible to please God".  The Spirit speaks, "You have faith in what you can do but what about faith for what I can do?  Faith for what goes beyond your flesh capacity?"

Every trial is designed to take us beyond our own ability to resolve it.  Refinement happens through surrender.  Most all of us are confronted by situations we did not go looking for.  How do we react?  Is our first reaction self-pity or self-reliance?

The Spirit speaks to my heart, "I want your first and most overwhelming reaction to be to bring it to Me.  Stop trying to find your own answers, your own solutions, or orchestrate your own deliverance. Then, I want your next reaction to be obedience to My Word and My commands.  I am here to enable you, but you must co-operate."

As I look back over the years, I see those knee-jerk reactions, and what they cost me and even where they stumbled me.  But each one offered a life lesson that enables me to whole heartedly agree with the Holy One today.  I say, "yes, Lord.  Fill me with the sense of your Presence and manifest the fruit of your Life within".

Today, even as fear grips my  mind, as I surrender it all to the Holy One, His presence promises the fruit of His faith to believe all things.  Faith for His Divine control. Faith for His deliverance.  Faith for His restoration.  And in that faith, I know I can Trust Him.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?