This week, Pastor Matthew continued on with our series on the Holy Spirit.

As followers of Jesus, we should be listening to and hearing from God regularly. Jesus longs to speak to us, and the way in which we hear the voice of God is through the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is divine, He is a person and a part of the trinity. What is true about each person of the Godhead is true about them all.

We read the Bible to get to know the trinity between the lines. God wants us to know what He is like. We get to know His character.

Pastor Matthew gave us two points on how to recognize the voice of God in the Spirit:

1. We must realize He is available to us.

Worthiness is not a prerequisite to being in the presence of God. We need to be careful not to make feelings an idol, but instead to truly understand and embrace the fact that through the Holy Spirit God is always available and accessible, no matter how we feel about it. Through Jesus we have access to the Father by the Holy Spirit.

When we stumble, we do not need to stay down or give up. We repent, ask for forgiveness, get up and keep going. Sometimes we get so focused on ourselves that we do not focus on the God who will set us free.

We need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

We have the Holy Spirit to walk with us and to live with us. Therefore we need to practice cultivating His presence so that when He does speak we will hear Him. The Holy Spirit moves and empowers us to obey Him, follow Him, and walk with Him.

We are Gods Holy temple, which is a big deal. It is where God comes to dwell with His people. It is His sign that He is with us. The Lord Himself goes before us, and is with us.

2. Worship is important if you are going to recognize the Spirit.

Worship helps us to focus on God’s glory, and invites us to pay attention to the very one whose heart we wish to know. It allows us to translate what we know about God into a dynamic conversation with God. Our worship matters to God.