There really is an aha moment

Every time we enter the house of God, and rest in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, is an aha moment! I am so thankful and blessed to have known the salvation of truth that is not only filled with joy and peace, but the only relationship with God that truly brings the aha moment time after time, day after day, year after year, for a lifetime. He is truly the pearl of great price scripture speaks of, and once you have found this pearl of great price, you will never be the same again! You wouldn't trade him or sell him for anything, especially not for the ways or opinions of the earth that is going to be rolled together like a scroll and burned! The Holy Ghost is the greatest treasure on the face of the earth. And as Hebrews says, it is the earnest (or down payment) of your inheritance. That is why the Holy Ghost is so necessary in the life of a person. It literally seals you as the scripture says until that day of redemption!

As the genuine and powerful presence of the Spirit of God permeates the sanctuary, the greatest rest and peace and joy cover the congregation. This presence of God far exceeds religion! It is real and tangible. It is the most awesome sacred blessing to be, as the song says, "shut in with God in a secret place, there in his presence, beholding His face, gathering strength just to run in this race. How I love being shut in with God." As tears of peace and joy flow down my face at times during service, this aha moment from God flows over my soul. I wonder again, as I have for so many years, at this awesome and very real rest from the outside world of negative, hate-filled news stories and despair.

Why will man not submit his soul to God and let the Spirit of God flow over him? How simple it really is for mankind to truly rest! How precious it really is for mankind to love one another. How simple it is for mankind to fellowship with his maker in one aha moment after another, yet mankind refuses, and chooses a life of sin, strife, stress, hatred, addictions and evil. How sad that man chooses death over life and darkness over light, but he does, time and time again and has for eons of time, even though he has a Savior. The base (or dishonorable, corrupt, vile and immoral) instinct of man causes him to utter cursing and filth and live a life of evil thoughts and actions. The natural, base man will desire to see, hear and speak that which is vulgar and impure. Just as heaven has beautiful languages of the Spirit, hell has its languages, too. Words of cursing are the languages of hell. Just as heaven has its songs of beauty, peace, joy and love, hell has its music as well. It's two vastly different worlds.

Daniel was a man of wisdom, understanding and integrity. God gave him astounding gifts that elevated him in the king's kingdom. Prayer three times a day to the God of heaven not only guarded Daniel's tongue, but it guarded his life! His lion's den experience proved that. There is a secret place with the Almighty, a very real place in the Spirit of God, that man can run to, and all of those base instincts are removed and replaced with peace, purity and goodness. God does it supernaturally! He makes a new creature out of man. The presence of God is a beautiful, sacred place that one can truly breathe and find that aha moment. The Spirit of God then keeps the soul from base, sinful desires and transforms man into what is good and pure and full of light. Those who have the Spirit of God within them live differently than those who do not in this evil and perverse world. The word instructed us to "save yourselves from this crooked and perverse generation," and we are definitely seeing that generation.

You can stand for pure and right in this perverse and crooked generation. It doesn't matter one single bit if those around you find that strange. Their opinions don't matter at all to the one who has the Spirit of God within! People found Noah strange in his day and mocked that precious man who followed God instead of their corrupt world and ways. However, when the rain they had never seen began to fall, and the flood waters began to rise, they were clawing at the wood and beating on the door of the ark, screaming to get in to safety. Noah didn't seem quite as strange at that moment! Following God had paid off. God had shut the door of the ark, and Noah and his family were safe in the ark under God's care and provision. It was his aha moment.

You can have aha moments in God when you submit your life to him. There are realms of his Spirit you can experience that will make everything of this earth grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. You just have to turn your eyes upon Jesus, that great God who holds vast treasures for you, and I promise you that you will never ever want to look back.

LINDA SCHRECKENBERG is a former Bollinger County resident now living in O'Fallon. She can be reached at Linda.schreck63@gmail.com.