Pentecost Thursday: Empowered to Speak

A blessed Pentecost, friends! May you know the power of the risen and reigning Christ resting on you and working through you today, tomorrow, and always!

Welcome to the  Pentecost Daybook series for these 8 days of celebrating (today through Trinity Sunday).

Look: Pentecost Art Installation (2009), Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis, IN - Source 

Listen: You can listen to my playlist for Pentecost in its entirety on Spotify: Pentecost 2020.

Read: Psalm 8, 84;  Ecclesiastes 3:16-4:3; Galatians 3:1-14; Mathew 14:13-21 

*note: I included the evening Psalm instead of the morning because I'm so late in posting this today!

Pray: Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful,
and enkindle in us the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created,
and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Amen.

Do: Throughout the week I'll be sharing excerpts from spiritual teacher Henri Nouwen as well as my own brief reflections about the way the Holy Spirit empowers us to live in peace, freedom, and power. Read, reflect, journal, and share your own responses with the rest of us in the comment section below.

Empowered to Speak

"The Spirit that Jesus gives us empowers us to speak. Often when we are expected to speak in front of people who intimidate us, we are nervous and self-conscious. But if we live in the Spirit, we don't have to worry about what to say. We will find ourselves ready to speak when the need is there. "When they take you before ... authorities, do not worry about how to defend yourselves or what to say, because when the time comes, the Holy Spirit will teach you what you should say" (Luke 12:11-12).

We waste much of our time in anxious preparation. Let's claim the truth that the Spirit that Jesus gave us will speak in us and speak convincingly."

In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen

The Spirit Will Speak In Us

"When we are spiritually free, we do not have to worry about what to say or do in unexpected, difficult circumstances. When we are not concerned about what others think of us or what we will get for what we do, the right words and actions will emerge from the center of our beings because the Spirit of God, who makes us children of God and sets us free, will speak and act through us.

Jesus says: "When you are handed over, do not worry about how to speak or what to say; what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes, because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you" (Matthew 10:19-20).

Let's keep trusting the Spirit of God living within us, so that we can live freely in a world that keeps handing us over to judges and evaluators."

The Road to Daybreak by Henri Nouwen

I have a complicated relationship with using my voice to speak. I bet most of you do, too. You're not crazy. In our culture, churches, families and workplaces, we are navigating so many unwritten rules about who gets to speak when and in what way. 

For me, this has often looked like remaining silent when I needed to speak for the love of myself and others. Sometimes it's looked like inappropriate verbal outbursts or mumbled cynical rants, aggressive or passive-aggressive postures respectively. On a few occasions, I've enjoyed the pleasure of knowing that I said the right words in the right way to the right people at the right time. It's an exquisitely rewarding feeling and one of my deepest desires is to keep moving in that direction.

The scope of what it means to be empowered by the same Spirit breathing through the Word of God is vast. We could talk about what it means to find the voice of our truest selves as joint-heirs with Christ.  We could talk about being healed from all the times our voices were silenced, ignored, mocked, or shamed. We could talk about callings from God to use our voice for the voiceless through any number of individual talents and giftings. 

The entire scope matters. You have to decide what feels most helpful to you today. Where is the Spirit of God inviting you to use your voice? What follows after that question tells you so much about yourself and your deepest needs and desires. You can be sure that we are not empowered to speak for our own benefit only, but the voice is uniquely shaped by the self Christ is making new. 

One of the most freeing moments I've experienced is when I realize that I'm not called to speak words no one's ever spoken before. My personality gets stuck in the temptation to believe that only the most original statements have value.  No! In Christ, we're called to echo the Word with our voices and lives in the time and space God has placed us. Our highest honor is to add our voice to the chorus of voices speaking truth, goodness, and beauty in this world. What a privilege and what a relief. Even when we feel we are the only voice speaking, we are never alone. 

Let's keep trusting the Spirit of God living within us, speaking in and through us.

Peace, friends,

Tamara

p.s., If you'd find it helpful to have another person discern with you what the Spirit is speaking in you and how you might be called to use your voice, that's what I do as a  Spiritual Director. You can message me here or through the contact form at my Spiritual Direction webpage for more information: https://www.tamarahillmurphy.com/spiritual-direction