The Holy Spirit is Active

Before I begin: You may notice that I use the word active very frequently throughout my message, bolded and italicized. This is the specific word that God gave me for this message as I prayed about it, and that is why it is so emphasized and important, just in case you were curious:)

I feel that the spirituality of Christianity has been unfortunately, shied away from. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior expressed his concern with this in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. He states that “The judgement of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century” within this beautifully written letter, directed at a group of clergymen who criticized King and his movements. (I highly encourage you to read it. It is truly inspiring and eye opening. You can find it here: https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html ). I have seen King’s predictions begin to bubble to the surface of our world. I see it in churches I visit, and I have been to very many, I see it in youth groups, and I see it most of all within the beautiful conversations between those around me, including me or not, about our Father. Unfortunately, this neglecting of spirituality within ourselves and the Holy Spirit itself, has led me continuously to study scripture and worship Father by myself rather than with others. Not that it is right or justifiable at all just because of these circumstances, but that is what I have chosen to do and feel it is important for me to include in this message so that you know the source’s perspective.

People give me a strange look without realizing it when I bring up raw spiritual experiences and feelings before they quickly wipe their surprise, confusion or even skepticism from their expression and return to their polite and listening brows. I find that they turn silent often- struck with the unfamiliar and raw phrases that escape my mouth, these words unknowing they would be received as strange instead of glorifying. These words in particular seem to evoke strange emotions and faces when I describe them to others in light conversation about our walks with God:
-spiritual warfare
-evil spirits
-spiritual tension
-spiritual fights/conflicts
-God moved my spirit
-the Holy Spirit did [blank]

I noticed that these phrases seem to all have something in common: they include or imply action.

Why is it so unfamiliar and striking that the Holy Spirit is active?

From my experiences attending several churches, (so many partly because I have been disappointed at the severe lack of spirituality acknowledged and fostered in them that I have explored to try to find it at several different churches of all denominations, being nondenominational myself. It saddens my heart that it is, in fact, rare.), and from these experiences exploring, I believe I know the answer to this question: the Holy Spirit’s association with verbs and the tremendously active spirits we house within us are shied away from in the church. Not all churches of course, but unfortunately many. I thought for weeks about the source of this disregarding for our spirituality after God called me to write about it. And I have come to the conclusion after discussing with God and praying over it that because people are stricken with confusion and skepticism when I bring up these things: it is unfamiliar. And if it is unfamiliar, it must not be mentioned or acknowledged enough in the church, or else, Christians in general would be familiar with it if it were a consistent mentioning in the church or in whatever devotionals and electronic sermons un-attending-church Christians use to study scripture and praise God.

Then I thought for another week and a half about the source of the source.

Where is this ashamed feeling that surrounds the activity of our spirits coming from?

I have concluded this to be the fear of being misunderstood as someone who either, A) is making false claims about the Holy Spirit and has been delusional in feeling anything as powerful and active as the Holy Spirit within them is, B) similar to A, but of being judged by those around them that they are a “fake” or a “lesser” Christian (the massive issue of the judgment and condescending attitudes that exist in some churches and communities or the attitude that any Christian is above another Christian in any way is too expansive and for another time), C) that their professing about the Holy Spirit they have felt or experienced is for attention rather than for glorifying God (which I acknowledge is a possibility sometimes, but that does not mean everyone does this), and D) that they will be perceived as crazy, and spiritual in an unChristian way- meaning believing in tarot cards, palm reading, psychics and so forth with what they feel in their spirit- I’ve personally found through experience that when I freely talk about my spirit like it’s a regular and normal thing I am sometimes perceived this way. I often feel things in my spirit simply from walking past a person. I know that God gives me these feelings in my spirit, and they have helped me in danger and in daily life. People think I’m crazy and delusional.

For example, I’ll tell you a story. One of the strongest movements I have felt from the Holy Spirit was late at night while I was on the phone with someone close to me, because I felt uneasy and wanted to say goodnight. I told this person that I felt clear and present tension in my spirit, and that I was scared about how strongly I felt it in my spirit. They asked me exactly what I meant and what I thought could happen. I told them that it felt like a bow and arrow was stretched all the way back and somehow got stuck, and one single little move could make it release all of the tension and explode into a bad situation. I told them that the extremely clear word I could feel in particular was tension. That was the exact word my spirit had given me. There was no wondering or questioning it, it was definite tension. This is what scared me the most; something so present and unquestionable and that I had never felt anything that strongly in my spirit before. Such a powerful negative feeling could not be good. I told the person that I felt crazy, but that I felt the tension very specifically around my house and in my neighborhood. Not just tension, but I felt deep in my spirit that it was in my neighborhood. This person prayed with me, said goodnight and I went to sleep peacefully after asking for God to give me His peace, protection over my house and our property, and His reassurance.

The next morning, I had an alert from my neighborhood’s app we use to communicate and set up events and garage sales. The alert read that our neighborhood was targeted last night by a few individuals who have been breaking into cars around our city, and urged us to check and report anything missing or broken into. I opened the app. It was flooded with reports of car break-ins and stolen property. This was when I connected the tension in my spirit to the events that happened last night. Because I was actively listening to the Holy Spirit within me, God moved my spirit, warned me and allowed me to pray over the situation. I didn’t tell anyone except the person I was on the phone with that night, for I felt I would receive more judgement and skepticism than I would glorify God to anyone that did not know for a fact that I had not made up the Holy Spirit moving within me the night before. I’m sharing it now, because God called me to share this issue I see and my experiences with it, so I am prepared to receive skepticism on it as I have been praying to brace myself. This is where people start to question and become skeptical on me, the Holy Spirit within me, and spirituality at all. They call me crazy. Well you know what, God is crazy! He does crazy amazing things and He puts crazy amazing feelings inside your spirit as long as you believe in the Spirit inside of you and are actively listening to it. I believe my spirit is active and I actively choose to listen to it. When you believe, listen and quiet your own desires and thoughts, you will learn how tremendously active the Holy Spirit is within you. It moves in you and speaks to you everyday, but maybe you have shied away from your important and essential spirituality, too.

A specific experience I had at work is what God originally called me to write this with, and for that reason is most important. God told me to share this story, and I have struggled with becoming vulnerable enough to share it, but I know I must. It is God’s will and I will follow it.

Here’s my most important story of this message.

A couple months ago, I was having one of the worst days imaginable. I had that physical ache you get when you hear words that just crush your heart into pieces. I had many things going on at the same time in my personal life and relationships with my loved ones. On my break I kept it to myself like I always do and refused to cry. If you know me, you probably know that I do not cry often, and when I do, it is never in public and is over a big deal. One of my friends once said to a group of friends while we were hanging out, “If Angelle is crying, you know something is really wrong.” On my break, I worked myself up about my situation, overthought it and grew closer and closer to the edge of tears. Too soon my break was over and I had to put on that bright smile customers remember me for, the smile that makes them check if I am working before they pick a line because they want to see me again. But, that smile just would not go on, even though I tried really hard to smile and pray over all of my customers as I scanned their items, I couldn’t focus on anything other than my hurt and heartbreak. I prayed for God to take away my pain and let me glorify Him in any way I could as I worked. Then my spirit moved inside me: “You need to ask one of your customers to pray for you.” I was absolutely shocked. My initial thoughts were:

There is no way I could ask a customer to do that!

I need to serve them instead of bothering them!

I could lose my job if I asked someone to pray for me and they got offended or someone in line got offended, since it is considered inappropriate at the workplace!

Of course, this was just the devil working against my spirit, trying to discourage me. After all of my doubts passed, I began thinking this over and over to prepare myself, even though I was still unsure if I could bring myself to do it:

I have to ask someone to pray for me.
I have to ask someone to pray for me
Someone needs to pray for me.
Someone needs to pray for me.

Someone needs to pray for me.

I was a bit shaky and nervous for the next period of time as I kept repeating it over and over again in my head.

Then a woman entered my line and began loading her items.

She was not particularly kind in any sense, but not rude or negative either. She seemed like a somewhat neutral and monotone woman to me as we carried on the polite “how are you” ‘s. She was just a normal regular woman to me.

But, God had other ideas about that woman.

I looked up at her as I scanned her items.

God spoke firmly as I did that. One single word.

Her.

I began to visibly shake, overcome with nerves, anxiety and worry. She looked strangely at my trembling fingers that bagged her items very slowly to buy myself time to build confidence, but she did not question it and waited patiently. Finally, I gathered every ounce of courage in me and I started with:

“Ma’am?”

My voice trembled as I asked for her attention and I cleared my throat. She looked up at me and responded:

“Yes?”

“Can I ask you a question I’m not supposed to ask?”

“Well, sure.”

“Ma’am, are you a believer?”

“Yes ma’am, I am.”

“Okay, well, God just asked me to ask you to pray for me.”

I was overcome with the presence of the Holy Spirit as I said that last sentence to her, and my personal reaction to feeling the Holy Spirit so strongly is crying. At the word ‘asked’, my voice broke and tears raced down my cheeks. I could not speak without croaking.

She closed her eyes, understandingly nodded and said:

“Alright, honey, what is your name?”

I was so overcome that all I could bring myself to do was point at my name tag.

She nodded again and asked gingerly:

“Is it family related or something like that?”

There was so much going on. I barely sputtered out a nervous smile and a:

“Kind of.”

She smiled sadly at me and said:

“You’re too young to be so stressed like this.”

I nervously laughed and rapidly wiped tears from my face. She then looked me in the eye with all the peace in the world and said:



“I’m just on my way to my prayer group right now. I was picking up some food to bring to it. We will all pray for you there.”



“Thank you so much.”

She was on her way to a prayer group at that moment. God asked me to ask not only her to pray for me, but ultimately had me ask her entire prayer group to pray for me as well. I was in awe. God was at work for me, and sent this woman on her way to a prayer group into my line so that He could tell me she was the one to ask. Just wow.

My hands were shaking even worse and I was clumsy with the rest of her bags. She took them gracefully and simply smiled before she left. I was so overcome that I truthfully don’t remember if she said anything else as she left.

I had a man checkout quickly after that, very tender to me, having witnessed the situation that just unfolded before us.

Then I was worried about crying in front of more customers. I chuckled at the thought of having to worry about that. Me! Crying! AT WORK! I never would’ve guessed in a million years.

God took such good care of me. For the next fifteen minutes, I had not a single customer come through my line. I busied myself with spraying and wiping off my work area as I composed myself. I was ready and smiling by the time the next customer came.

Through the night, I felt peace and love sweep over me. On my next break I received a message that was opposite of how I expected it to turn out, in a good way. I knew that prayer group, wherever they were, had prayed for me. What great power there is in prayer, especially prayer with numerous people. I was so grateful, and I prayed my thanks for the rest of the night and following weeks.

I actively choose every single day to rest my own heart and listen for the Holy Spirit that I house inside me. This kind of ties in to our organization’s name, which is really awesome to me because I did not intend for this message to. You are a temple. You house the Holy Spirit inside of you. How amazing is that? It speaks and moves constantly in you, and I know because I give my undivided attention to it. I have felt movements in my spirit simply from a person walking by, whether it be negative, that I need to pray for them, sometimes I even feel I need to pray for someone for a specific reason (once I felt I needed to pray for a man’s mother. I don’t know why, but the Holy Spirit inside me insisted and I followed). For the times it has been negative, I have warned my family and saved myself from certain situations several times, but most of those are too private and personal to share. One little example of this is once when I was laying on my bed, clearing my mind, asking God to tell me what was wrong, because I could feel something wrong inside. After a silent fifteen minutes of my mind being clear, God said:

Turn around, it’s behind you.

This terrified me as I slowly shifted to turn and my eyes immediately were drawn to an embellished feather mask I bought from New Orleans several years ago. I knew I was looking where He wanted me to be looking. Then He said, frighteningly with powerful haste and firmness:

Get rid of it. Now.

You bet I jumped off my bed and ran as quick as I could to throw that mask away.

I wish I would’ve snapped it in half.

I will never be sure, but what I have thought about and guessed is this: New Orleans unfortunately is known for evil spiritual happenings, voodoo being one of the more prominent happenings there. I have guessed that the mask had something to do with an evil spirit in it or on it or something of that sort. Looking back, it terrifies me that I had that mask in my room for years without the knowledge of anything evil being associated with it. When I was younger (I had the mask for a long time), I remember thinking there was something watching me in my closet. I know that’s a common fear for children, but I wonder if it had to do with the mask. (During my many rounds of editing, every single round I found myself questioning whether or not to keep this section because I was afraid people wouldn’t believe me and that it would take away from my credibility and therefore my message. But I realized, that fear I had is exactly what I am talking about and discouraging in my message! So, I am taking the step of keeping it, despite the fear of skeptics, confident that God will still speak through my message with it remaining.)

The point is, God moved in me and moved my spirit, because I actively listened for Him and for the Holy Spirit. He moves in you, too. You just need to believe it and listen. Not only is your spirit active, but you need to be active in listening, as well. It’s a combined effort.

You may feel in awe of what I just told. You may feel surprised or shocked.

That’s my point.

Why is it so unfamiliar and striking that the Holy Spirit or is active?

Why is it so unfamiliar and striking that spirits are active?

Not that one who doesn’t feel surprised can’t feel in awe of that story, which I hope you are in awe of God at it, but you understand what I am trying to say. These stories are not irregular or un-normal.

This is what the Holy Spirit does every single day.

This is what the Holy Spirit does in you every single day.

You just have to believe that and listen.


The Holy Spirit is active.


Before I wrap this up, I realized that I need to also address what to do after you believe, listen and then hear or feel the Holy Spirit. This may take a lot of prayer and conscious listening. Once you do hear or feel it, You must follow it. God asks crazy things of people that take unrelenting courage and submitting to God. He asked Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son, only to place a lamb in the child’s place when Abraham went to obey God. He has asked armies to march around walls in Jericho seven times while playing trumpets. The things He ask may be crazy and scary. But it is God’s will, and once you do God’s will, you will feel Him and the most overflowing sensation that you have ever felt in your life. It is the best feeling in the world.

The spirit within us is that of the Holy Spirit- what great privilege and power we have to extend God’s hand through us to others with this great Spirit within our depths.

I want to invite you to pray this prayer. I am not usually a fan of memorized and recited prayer, because I feel that most prayer should come directly from your heart and not anything else. But, I do admit that I find myself praying these words from my heart often. If you would like, pray it with me:

Father, please help me to listen and recognize my spirit. Help me to actively listen to how You move the Holy Spirit within me, Lord. Please give me Your peace and grace. Let me glorify You with these in my every move. Let my words be Your words. Let my thoughts be Your thoughts. Let my actions be Your actions. Let me be Your mouthpiece from heaven on earth. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.


Thank you so much for reading and allowing me to share the greatness and activity of our God and the Holy Spirit which lives in you. I have been praying, writing and revising on this message and what God wanted me to say for several months and I genuinely hope this impacted you or that you could take something away from it. I am praying for you, as I pray for every reader who reads You Are A Temple. I would love to hear how it impacted you or if you have any questions or comments. Please do contact me at angelle_smith2009@yahoo.com

I also encourage you to visit https://hopecity.com/ . It is my favorite church that I have attended, although it is a bit far away for me to attend frequently. It is a church that truly fosters the Holy Spirit. I encourage you to listen and watch the broadcasted sermons they post, or visit their youtube at https://m.youtube.com/user/yourhopecity . I promise you won’t be bored. Pastor Jeremy truly is an extremely engaging and captivating speaker!

Go get em’!

Be active.

-💛angelle