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How to Leave Room for the Holy Spirit in Your Life

It is easy to do all that we can to make things work—to make them go. And I’m not against that, when done with wisdom. I just want you to leave some room for divine encounters with the Holy Spirit.

If you grew up Catholic (like I did) you probably heard the phrase, Leave room for the Holy Spirit.  Honestly, I don’t remember if I actually heard someone say it to me or heard a joke about it. Either way, it’s generally about a nun giving dating instructions.

Well, that’s not the worst advice. (As the father of daughters, I embrace it!) However, I want to apply it a different way. Be sure that you leave room for the Holy Spirit between the plans, programs, and strategies of worship.

Leave room for the Holy Spirit

1. What I Do

It would be easy for me to lose touch—I’m largely a “motivational speaker living in a van down by the river.” It would be easy for me to become disconnected from local church issues and real people.

So I am intentional about carving out time and space for personal interaction with people I wouldn’t have time to get to know at a conference.

But, it is not just me—it is you as well.

2. Fast Listening

In order to keep myself aware of what’s going on outside of my normal circle, sometimes when I travel, I’ll tweet, “Hey, if you’re not crazy or angry, you can come meet me for dinner at such and such a time.”

If I’m in Orlando, I’ll have 20 people. If it’s Boston, I’ll have four people. But either way, I’ll sit there and learn.

Another thing I do regularly is tweet out, “If you need prayer, encouragement or advice, send me a direct message, and for the next two hours I will be calling people.” One night I had two hours while I was driving, so I made calls from 10 p.m. until midnight and just talked to people—about 15 to 20 individuals.

I prayed with them, and we talked. I get to hear someone’s story. They get to bounce stuff off of me. I learned some stuff from them. We connect spiritually. Everyone wins.