As a believer, you have the power of the Holy Spirit inside you. But that power won’t go to work until you put it to work!
The Holy Spirit won’t just muscle in on you. He won’t come in and turn down the television set and jerk you up off the couch and say, “Now you listen to Me.”
No, He’s a gentleman. He’s sent to help you to do the will of God, to strengthen you, to counsel you…but He won’t do a thing until He’s asked.
Rarely does God do something exactly as we think He will. Our problem is that we try to second-guess God, saying, “Oh, now I know what God is planning to do!” Moses experienced this as he learned how God was going to deliver the Hebrews out of Egypt. God told him He would harden Pharaoh’s heart. Yet, the result was not what Moses anticipated. Rather than allowing the Hebrews to leave, Pharaoh increased their hardship. Rather than becoming a hero among the Hebrews, Moses was despised by them for bringing greater suffering. Moses returned to the Lord and asked, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me?” (Exod. 5:22). Much of the frustration we experience as Christians have nothing to do with what God does or doesn’t do. It has everything to do, rather, with the false assumptions we make about how we think God will and should act.