Want to hear from the Holy Spirit? To make God-inspired, Biblical choices? To have the courage, comfort and perseverance to finish strong? Read your Bible. Every day. Study it. Learn to love it. Live by it. Listen for the whispers of the Holy Spirit through the words on the pages of God’s inerrant Word.

Sure, you will be able to get by without daily fellowship with God. Without daily study of His Word. But you will simply be guessing your way through life, risking making wrong turns and probably doing so. The Spirit’s whispers enable you to live with energetic confidence, avoiding costly mistakes. Will you still make mistakes? Sure. The question for those times is “What is God trying to do in this situation?”

There may be times when the Spirit seems to give a promise that doesn’t come to pass. When that happens, go back and reexamine the promise (another of the many reasons to keep a daily journal). Pray over it. Did you misread it? Did you read into it? Was it a promise God was truly giving you, or something you had just named and claimed?

God gives us what we need, not what we want. His promises will be fulfilled in His time and providence. Trust in Him. Your faith will be strengthened. “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him.” Isaiah 30:18 NIV

Adapted from Jesus in Me, A Study Of The Person of the Holy Spirit, Anne Graham Lotz