Spontaneity means responding to immediate circumstances in the present
moment, experiencing the present as an existential moment of “now”—a capability
that requires both mental flexibility and spiritual openness.
The power of spontaneity, if a person gives into it and cultivates it
as a way of responding to the Holy Spirit, allows for serendipitous experiences
otherwise missed if preoccupied by the past or worried about the future.
When Jesus called each of his disciples, they responded spontaneously
to the calls, all but the rich young ruler who met the invitation with an
excuse that he had many properties to manage and many responsibilities to
oversee, and therefore, sadly, was simply too busy to respond to God. Jesus
didn’t try to convince him otherwise by pleading for him to consider all that
he would miss, but rather turned away in search of the next person who would
hear his invitation and welcome it.
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| Too Busy to Respond to God |
Spontaneity, needless to say, is different from impulsivity and
irresponsibility. Christ doesn’t want persons to act rashly on the spur of the
moment, doing things they will regret the next day. That is why the Holy Spirit
works to build a rapport with a person’s whole human nature: your mind and
heart, body and spirit—and this evolves over the years.
God desires for his people to learn to trust his presence in their
whole being, so they can sense when he is guiding them in novel directions, or
affirming the way they are headed. Sound thinking, genuine feeling, bodily
sensing, and spiritual prayer combine to keep you zestful in faith,
sensitive to the moment, and responsive to God’s dynamic way of guiding you.
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| Seeking God's Guidance |
In times of unusual stress, Jesus declares, the Holy Spirit intervenes
at a core level: “But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry
beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in
that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit” (Mk
13:10-11).
The same principle applies to private Bible reading, group Bible study,
or church worship. Opening your being to the biblical narrative allows the Holy
Spirit to sometimes augment the general meaning with a more specific application
to your life.
Christ walks and talks among individuals today as surely as he did with his twelve disciples, and his spontaneous interaction with the contemporary believer requires just as much flexibility on the part of the person as it did for the disciples.
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| Jesus Today |
By listening afresh for the spontaneous ways the Spirit is speaking,
you can truly hear a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, or a prophetic
word that brings counsel in an area of need or a creative idea in an area of
quandary.
In this way the Holy Spirit, the wellspring of creativity and
spontaneity, crafts nuanced love poems aimed at your heart, letting you
know how cherished you are, “I AM” encountering “i am” with blessing and sustenance
for each day.
For more, read:
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| Trusting in the Trinity |
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