Doing Something New

I love my pastor. I love him because he's caring, dedicated and passionate about building God's kingdom.  He is also a Holy Spirit inspired preacher...but he has this little habit of preaching and teaching very challenging sermons and Bible studies. Challenging in that they bring conviction and motivation to do better. I can't number the sermons and Bible studies he's preached that has sent me to prayer and repentance. That's a great thing because it causes me to mature. His teachings, however, has me squirming in my seat because God often speaks through them to issues that I have, shall I say, slow to acknowledge. And when I do acknowledge them, they often push me to an uncomfortable place of faith.

Perfect example: My pastor has been teaching a Bible study series on the Holy Spirit. Last Wednesday, the night before NaNoWriMo began, my pastor stated that if we have not done anything new, we are probably not letting the Holy Spirit work through us. He said that the Holy Spirit gives us power to go beyond our abilities. He also said if we are still relying on our own abilities, we are not relying on the Holy Spirit.

Ouch.

Right then and there I prayed and asked God if I had been relying on my own abilities and not the Holy Spirit and my writing popped into my mind. The writing that I hadn't been doing. The writing that I had been telling God I couldn't do. The writing that I wasn't relying on the help of the Holy Spirit to accomplish.

Double ouch.

So I asked the Holy Spirit to help me go beyond my abilities. His response? Write three books at one time. Talk about squirming. My first thought was, "I can't do that." And He replied, "No, you can't own your own." Now I was really in a tight spot. Was I going to write three books in one month with the help of the Holy Spirit, or keep relying on my own abilities.

So I would like to direct your attention to the word counters in the sidebar of this blog. They are for the THREE novels that I'm writing this month. My main focus is my NaNoWriMo manuscript, but I'm also actively writing the other two.

And guess what? The Holy Spirit is helping me. It's like a cash of words and plot lines got released from heaven into my brain and I'm loving it. It is uncomfortable, yes, but it's definitely something new.