A Life in the Spirit

But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord . . .—Micah 3:8

Flowing in the Spirit is the best way to live. This is not to say that one is conscious all the time that he or she is flowing in the Spirit. But one can be fairly certain whether the Holy Spirit resides in a person ungrieved, and when we know this is the case, there is a great peace and an absence of tension and anxiety.

A marvelous example of flowing in the Spirit was the way Paul reacted to a demon-possessed girl who had a gift for predicting the future and kept pursuing him. For days, she kept mocking Paul and his companions and shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” The funny thing was, she was telling the truth. Finally, Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the malicious spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her (Acts 16:16–18). When we flow in the Spirit we reflect God’s timing: never too late, never too early, but always right on time. There are, however, unusual times of flowing in the Spirit. That is when God is up to something that is not your usual everyday happening. Most of life is lived not on the mountaintop, but in the valley. We must learn to flow in the Spirit in the valley as well as during those times when God does the unusual.

God has never—ever—let me down or left me with the feeling I had been deceived when I experienced flowing in the Spirit. It was pure joy, although sometimes it can be costly. You may lose some friends because you are misunderstood, but God will never desert you.

Excerpted from The Anointing: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (Charisma House, 2003).