The Melody of the Holy Spirit

The safest place on earth is not an abstraction or a concept, not a thought in my mind or a sudden revelation, not even being in the Bible or in prayer or in Christian service.

To put it clearly, it is not a something but a Someone. The safest place on earth is leaning back against Jesus, as John did in John 13:25. All the other apostles died a violent death; John did not.

The safest place in a dangerous world is being in a storm-swept boat about to sink, with Jesus who can calm the storm, as He did in Mark 4.

Yet I am always with You;
    You hold me by my right hand.
                You guide me with Your counsel,
    and afterward You will take me into glory.
Psalm 73:23-24

It’s a given that God is always with you through His Holy Spirit who came to live in you when you accepted Jesus as your Savior. The question is whether you are with God and whether you let Him take hold of your right hand and guide you with His counsel.

“There was a book written years back called GOD IS MY CO-PILOT. That’s a terrible concept. If you’re treating God as your co-pilot, it means you’re sitting in the wrong seat. You need to let God be your pilot. He’s the one who flies the airplane. You’re simply along for the ride.

As the sketch below shows, if you’ve been at the top of your life and asking Jesus to tag along like a puppy dog, your life is going to be upside down. He needs to be at the very top of your life and you tag along like a puppy dog.

I met with Tyler yesterday at the county jail where I’m a chaplain. He’s struggling with having lost his daughter to foster care when he got busted several months ago. We were studying the story of the rich ruler whom Jesus asked to sell everything he had and come follow Him, when he asked me a question I hadn’t anticipated. “Pat, if Jesus asked you to give up everything you have to go where He asked you to go, what would you say to Him?”

I thought about my wife, my two sons and their wives, and my three grandchildren and the teacher’s retirement checks my wife and I get and the Social Security checks we get every month. I thought about the comfortable house I live in and my friends and my publishing business and all the other things I’d be losing. I told Tyler I’d ask Jesus for time to think it over, since it was such a momentous decision to make.

Then I started processing it all aloud, so Tyler was able to see the process I’d use to answer Jesus’ question. First of all, I’d not be leaving my children and grandchildren in the lurch. My wife, their mother and Nana, is the main go-to contact in our family; she’d be sufficient for them. As to all the rest of it, I went through it piece by piece and said to Tyler, “If I can trust Jesus with the then, when I die, then surely I can trust Him with the now. If he sends me far away, He’ll take care of my family and friends and business and all the pieces of my life.”

I thought a bit of where He might send me. Some places would be OK and some I’d prefer not to go to. But If I’ve given my life to Him, then wherever He takes me to is where He wants me to be. If I am His servant, as I claim I am, I will follow Him to the ends of the earth. He died on the cross to reconcile me to God; He gave me a free pass to heaven. How could I refuse Him anything. All these things that I thought I shared with Tyler. Then I said, “My answer would be ‘Yes, I’m willing to follow you anyplace You want me to go, whether pleasant or unpleasant. I’m willing to give up everything I have to follow You.'”

It might be a good exercise for you to ask yourself the same question. Would you be willing to give up everything you have to go where Jesus wanted you to go? With no stipulations or requests. With no expectations other than doing what He wants you to do.

This is taken from a new book I’m writing called FINDING THE SAFEST PLACE ON EARTH.

For the most part, people on this earth fit into one of three categories. The first category ends when one is born-again of the Spirit. The second two categories vie for control back and forth, sometimes one and sometimes the other, and rarely totally one or the other.

• The Natural Person. The spirit is dead to God and these people are unable to fulfill the purpose for which God created them. Their minds are filled with thoughts about themselves and what the world has to offer. Satan finds a fertile field for his lies in such people.
• The Spiritual Person. Also known as Spiritual Christians. These people’s spirits are alive through their becoming children of God and recipients of His grace. They are re-born from their natural selves into spiritual beings. Their minds are transformed from evil to good, their wills are conformed to God’s will, and their emotions are filled with joy and peace. They are bent on following Jesus  
•  The Worldly Person. Also known as Worldly Christians. These people’s spirits are alive but they are more interested in the world, their own desires, and having their own ways instead of being led by Christ. They live independently of God, too follow their own wills instead of God’s will, and can be emotionally flighty – up and down as the world turns for or against them. They are bent on going their own way and following the ways of the world.

If you’re reading this post, you are probably not a natural person. The question then to ask yourself is who you are most of the time. Are you a Spiritual Christian staying as close to God as you can get, or are you a Worldly Christian who goes his or her own way much of the time?

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. John 14:21

I can read all about Jesus, study His nature and historical background, but I will never get to know Him until I do the simple, basic act of obeying Him completely in all things. When we surrender, we are flooded with new light, new hope, great joy, glorious peace and abounding faith.

And where do His commands come from but Scripture, prayer, and the revelation of the Holy Spirit?

Love the only One who could save you and the only One who can translate you from this life to heaven. On your own, you have nothing of any value for your trip to eternity.

We saw last week that one definition of love is “doing what’s best for the other person.” That’s a thought, and thoughts are not particularly beneficial until they become things.

Jesus loves us is a thought. The cross is a thing. The cross became Jesus’ doing what’s best for us. I love Jesus is a thought. My personal relationship with Him is a thing – a relationship with the one who created me, who died on the cross to restore my connection to a loving God, who is the Spiritual Head of the human race, and whom I will see face to face in not too long.

I will do better in my relationship with Jesus is a thought. Time is a thing. Time with Jesus should be A₁ in my planner every day.  

Love is doing what is best for the other person. What is best for you, Jesus?

“The relationship, Patrick. It’s always been the relationship.”
March 12, 2020

Come near to God and He will come near to you. James 4:8

It is not more knowledge that I need, Almighty God, but more seeking Your presence here and there and everywhere.

You are in the fireplace downstairs and in the office upstairs.

You are in the kitchen where I eat
And in the bedroom where I sleep.

You are everywhere outside
And in every home, store, and building where I set my foot.

Wherever I go, You are there first.

Yesterday (every Monday) was my chaplain day at the county jail I serve as a volunteer chaplain.

I had received an email from one of the program officers the day before (Sunday):
“See request below from [the name of the young woman]. She would like to meet with you if you can add her to your list.”

“Can I please talk to Patrick Day? I’m reading a book right now by him and I have a couple questions about God.”

My response back was, “Of course I’ll meet with her.”

The room in which the jail has me meet with inmates is a small meeting room with two huge windows that take up the wall next to the hallway. The young lady (only 20 years old) came into the room at 4:05 p.m. Hers was a sad tale of being bullied by a boyfriend into doing something that would have gone down as a tragic accident but ended up being leaving the scene of an accident, a felony. There’s much more to the story, of course.

“What do you want to ask me about?” I said to her.

“I read in your book about getting saved, but I have questions about how to go about it. Can you explain it to me?”

Can you imagine a chaplain getting a question like that? Whoop-de-do, I thought. This is like a home-run hitter in baseball getting a fast ball right over the plate in his prime hitting zone. If you’re kind of or really interested in what I went over with her, you could check it out in one of the two books of mine she had with her – 7 STEPS TO TURN YOUR DARKNESS INTO LIGHT or THE BIBLE REVEALED IN 10 STORIES. They’re both available on Amazon or any other on-line seller of books.

That young woman walked into that room as a lost soul, and at 4:40 p.m. she became saved. There were no flashing lights or claps of thunder or her jumping up yelling, “Hallelujah,” but she put her hands on her chest just below her neck and told me she felt right there that something moved in her. That was important for me to hear that. Sometimes people think they are saved in their minds but that hasn’t been translated to their hearts. I could tell with her that it was the real deal.

Just before she left the room at 4:50, five minutes past the time we were supposed to end, I said to her question of how she’d know for sure she was saved. “Take a look at what God has done in your life. You grabbed one of my books off the book cart and started reading it with purpose. Then the Holy Spirit prompted you to send a message to a programs officer asking to meet with me. He contacted me (that doesn’t always happen) and I put you on my list of “must talk to inmates.” These were not a string of coincidences. God had you in His sights and brought you to the point of your accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior. You’ll find yourself thinking differently now and being led by the Holy Spirit into following Jesus.”

Her last words as she went out the door were,

“I’m gonna to call my grandma right away and tell her I’ve been saved. That will mean a lot to her cause she’s the one who always talks to me about her faith.”

I thought to myself when I heard that. I expect that grandma has been praying for that young lady’s soul for a long time, and I expect her first thought when she gets the news will be – “Whoop-De-Doo, my little angel has been saved.”