The Holy Spirit is always calling all of us near, no matter how we respond or whether
or not we even realize it.
It's who He is and what He does.
Jesus called us to abide in Him and He abides in us.
We are connected to God.
And the Holy Spirit is always calling us near to show us new perspectives, to free us to
live in that connection.
I sense my awareness of God in the core of my being, my center, not my mind.
And when my mind and feelings sometimes resist God thoughts, I have learned that I can say
yes to those thoughts and receive them into my center.
The Psalms, Isaiah, and Song of Solomon all refer to a place of meeting with God, a private,
safe, secret, inner place.
Paul writes about our inner person.
He also says quite a bit about our center.
In 2 Timothy 1.7 he writes, God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of love, power,
And there are several translations, discipline, sound mind, sound judgment.
So I looked up the Greek.
That word is Sophronis Mas.
Its root words are sozo, which is saved, and phrein, which means midriff.
God has given us a saved phrein, a saved midriff, a saved center.
Phrein is translated understanding or thinking in English.
Not midriff or center.
So what Paul says about the core of our being is easy to miss.
1 Corinthians 14.20 is the only verse that contains phrein all by itself.
As I read it I am going to substitute phrein for thinking.
Brethren do not be children in your phrein.
Let an evil be babes, but in your phrein be complete, mature.
Since our phrein can be immature or unsaved, it appears to me that as with our minds, everyone
has a phrein, a center.
The New Testament contains several compound words that include phrein, but there are almost
30 verses with phrein to exercise the phrein, to exercise our center.
I am looking forward to exploring what the New Testament says about the connection between
Holy Spirit calling us near and the exercise of our phrein.
I'll give you scriptures in Greek words.
They along with other scriptures and all our life experiences can be dots for us to
collect.
Holy Spirit will connect those dots with us in our phreins, our centers, individually
in the ways that work best for us.
That can be frustrating for our minds, which tend to want answers quickly.
However, here's a part of what Jesus said in John 16, 12-14.
I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.
He shall glorify me, for He shall take of mine and shall disclose it to you.
Thank you for joining me.