Day 5
We Surrender our Spirit- We desire to align with the Holy Spirit
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” -Galatians 5:16-17
I recently had a conversation with a friend about to be a parent for the first time. It took me back to the days before I was to be a mom for the first time. I was filled with joy and expectation and dreams and hopes for the life that would come forth. My husband and I had so many ideas of how we would parent and what our child might become. We pictured the parts we loved most about ourselves being passed on to this little life and imagined all the ways he would do better and go further than we ever had.
When he was born long before he was due, all of those dreams, hopes, and expectations came crashing down. Instead we were set on a completely different course that we would have ever chosen, raising a precious child with physical and intellectual disabilities. As one who believes in healing and miracles, we began to intercede for this child who was fighting to breathe, to eat, and to do work outside of the original way God designed babies to live. Yet none of this caught God by surprise and in spite of my hopes and desires being derailed, He had a plan and a purpose for all of us.
In the first several years of our son’s life, my prayers for his healing came with all kinds of expectations of how and when God would heal. I wanted a front row seat to all of it. I had so many moments I was sure God would move how I wanted. I let him know how “this would be the perfect time” on more than one occasion. When it didn’t happen and I surrendered my disappointment to the Lord, I felt like he asked me, “Do you trust me with your child?” In my quick “yes”, I realized I was trying to orchestrate the circumstances all along and had yet to yield my way to God’s. I was seeking to gratify my flesh, my desires, my vision. At that moment, I asked God to help me surrender my spirit to the Holy Spirit. I began the process of relinquishing my hopes, my dreams and most of all my expectations to God, letting Him know I wanted to align with his will and His purposes. I continue to surrender again and again, in each new season even now.
We may have some very legitimate needs that have been the cause of long suffering. We may not understand how God is working or why his timing seems to be taking so long. But He sees the full picture where we see a little bit. God’s plans are bigger than ours, his ways are higher than ours. He sees all the repercussions of a yes or a no to our requests and how they play out in a million different ways we could not fathom or perceive. Even when we don’t understand a no, God is working all things together for our good. As we fast and pray for breakthrough, let us invite God to help us surrender our will, our desires, our hopes and expectations to the Holy Spirit. Let us together surrender our disappointment, our fears, and our weariness and allow God to strengthen us and be our hope. May God’s plans and purposes be accomplished through us and in spite of us as we process toward alignment with Him.
Listening Prayer: Holy Spirit, where have I misplaced my hope and expectations? Show me where I have aligned my spirit with my will instead of yours. Where am I holding on to disappointment, frustration, anger or fear that you want me to release to you?
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I confess that I have struggled to align my spirit with your spirit. I confess that I have had expectations and desires that you have not met in the way I think they should have. Lord, these feelings have been painful and difficult to navigate. I am tired and weary. Forgive me for thinking I know better than you. Forgive me for not trusting that you’ll come through. Thank you for all the ways you have intervened that I do not see or perceive. I agree with your Word that promises you are working all things together for the good of those who love you. Help me to be expectant for your to move while releasing my expectations of how you will accomplish it. Help me to trust that you have me, my circumstances, and those I love in your hands and that we do not go unnoticed by you. Teach me how to come into alignment with you so that I can be a part of breakthrough that sees your will being done on earth as it is in heaven.
Resources: Bible Verses on Surrendering to the Holy Spirit
Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
Romans 8:26-28 “Likewise 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. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,for those who are called according to his purpose.