Many times when I am a difficult situation, I am my own worst enemy. I worry and fret and then set about trying to solve all the problems by myself. Maybe you can relate. Christ reminds us over and over that we don’t have to go it alone. He will provide help. In fact, He tells us that He has given us an Advocate (John 16:7) and the Advocate will guide us (John 16:13). This Advocate is the Holy Spirit. So often, though, we block the power of the Holy Spirit and prevent Him from guiding us when we take matters into our own hands.

This reminds me of the scene from the first Star Wars movie where Luke Skywalker is being taught how to use a light saber. He is not doing very well and is getting stung by his hovering electronic sparring partner. His teacher, Obi-Wan Kenobi, tells him that he is relying too much on his own abilities and not enough on “The Force”. By relying only on himself he is blocking the ability of The Force to work through him and guide him to become a more effective warrior. To make his point, Obi-Wan has Luke put on a helmet that blocks his vision. He tells Luke that he must “let go of your conscious self” and trust The Force. By letting go of his self-sufficiency and trusting The Force, Luke is instantly able to fend off his sparring partner with supernatural talents that did not exist moments before. He surrendered himself to The Force and The Force was able to use him in extraordinary ways.

I think this is a good analogy for how the Holy Spirit works. When we ignore the Holy Spirit, we block Him from working–we block His “power”. In fact, Christ uses that exact term to describe the Holy Spirit when he refers to Him as the “power from on high” (Luke 24:49). We should take a tip from Obi-Wan Kenobi and fight our impulse to rely only on ourselves when faced with problems. Instead, we must invite the Holy Spirit to take over and guide our thoughts and actions. He is sure to give us supernatural powers making us much more effective in our daily battles.

Originally posted 2010-06-03 21:40:54.