I love to travel, and I’m beginning to get that God must love it when I travel too, because most of my Holy Spirit taught lessons are learned while on some sort of journey. This weekend I learned a very valuable lesson while on a flight back home from Florida.

We spent the long weekend swimming, relaxing, and celebrating 20 years of marriage. We were scheduled to return home on a 6:30 am flight on Monday morning, but on Sunday night, we decided that we wanted to spend a few extra hours in Florida. We identified a direct flight departing at 1:40 pm on Monday, out of a nearby airport, that would allow us the extra time we wanted.

We scheduled ourselves standby on the flight which had 9 seats available, switched the return airport for our rental car, and went to bed. When we woke up early the next morning ready to maximize the extra hours or Florida fun, we noticed that the flight had sold out overnight.

As I looked at the lack of available seats, my heart sank, but at that very instant, the Holy Spirit assured me that we were fine, and would make it home on the flight. I relaxed into trusting and chose to spend the time getting some work done. I finished and we got ready and headed to the airport.

Once there, we made it to our gate and although I could still sense the reassuring and almost overwhelming peace of the Holy Spirit, the gate agent’s repeated announcement that the flight was oversold, and her request for volunteers wanting to gate check their carry-on bags free of charge, unnerved me.

I began to make plans for getting home much later than I liked, and thoughts of, ‘why did we choose to stay longer,’ coursed through my mind. My conversations with the Holy Spirit were quite interesting. ‘I kept repeating, I trust you’, while I continued to worry and make plans. All the while He kept saying, “it doesn’t matter what alternative plans you make or what contingency plans you schedule, I’ve already provided seats on the plane for you.”

I kept looking at the seat map and grumbling to myself. The peace and calm that I felt as I grumbled was almost hilarious because it made no sense.

The agent announced that the flight was fully boarded, then after a short while she began to call names of passengers who were missing. Hope began to grow and she eventually called my family. As we boarded the plane, one flight attendant whispered to the other, “That’s the lucky family,” and I chuckled to myself. There were at least 15 other passengers who didn’t make it onto the flight.

We took our seats in the empty row that was waiting for us, and that’s when the Holy Spirit gave me clarity about what I was supposed to learn from the experience. “My inability to be all that I’m supposed to be in any given situation, doesn’t diminish His omnipotence, or His love for me. And it doesn’t cause Him to go back on His promises to me.” My lack of faith caused me a great deal of stress and worry, but He was still my Abba Father.

This was overwhelming information for me, because I had heard so many times, and believed for most of my life, that my lack of faith blocked God’s ability to act on my behalf. Now I understood that that belief was far from the truth. If you’re not seeing this truth, pause and ask the Holy Spirit to help you see it.

I can’t guarantee that the years of conditioning will be immediately reversed, but it’s reassuring to know that my Abba Father still loves me unconditionally, and my actions, although they break His heart, don’t cause Him to change how He responds to me, or His awesome plans for my life.

Don’t get me wrong, I get that my lack of faith has consequences, but He doesn’t reduce His love for me because I don’t measure up, as 1 Timothy 2:13 confirms, “But even if we are faithless, he will still be full of faith, for he never wavers in his faithfulness to us.”

As I pondered my learnings, Hebrews 11:6 which says, “Without Faith, it’s impossible to please God”, came to mind and it seemed to contradict my entire experience. Without fear or concern, I paused and asked the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of that scripture to me.

He led me to read the entire chapter and lovingly explained that, ‘I am not entirely faithless because I experience lapses in faith.’ All of the stalwarts of faith in the chapter experienced moments when their actions demonstrated anything but faith: Abraham pretended that Sara was his sister for fear of being killed. Not to mention he slept with his wife’s maid to get an offspring, after being told by God that he would have a child.

David slept with another man’s wife and had him killed to cover it up. Gideon also made the list of ‘Giants of Faith’ although he needed multiple confirmations from God, before he believed God’s promise.

The issue at hand wasn’t about individual instances, but about general belief in God and seeking after him. The message version puts it this way, “It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.’ That cleared things up for me.

I love how the Holy Spirit takes the time to use my experiences to break down my erroneous beliefs one at a time. He loves me so much, and knows that my heart’s greatest desire is to follow His plans for my life, so He continues to mold me as I journey further and further into purpose.

Do you get that truth? Your actions and reactions have consequences, but they don’t cause an adjustment in the magnitude of God’s love for you. He sees right through your shortcomings to your heart, and He causes all things to work for your good. Let me repeat 1 Timothy 2:13, “But even if we are faithless, he will still be full of faith, for he never wavers in his faithfulness to us.”

This very important lesson from the Holy Spirit has helped me to more easily spot other beliefs I held that were contrary to scripture. Like this belief that caused me to live in fear of God changing His mind about me, and not fulfilling His promises because of my shortcomings, other beliefs that cause us to live in fear are in direct opposition to the Word of God that says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “God’s Spirit doesn’t make cowards out of us. The Spirit gives us power, love, and self-control.”

What erroneous beliefs are you holding on to? Pause and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal them to you, and to shine the light of His truth into every area and experience of your life. As He is faithful to respond to your prayer, allow Him to reverse your years of conditioning, and be patient and kind with yourself in the process. Remember that your inability to trust God doesn’t impact His faithfulness towards you.

Heavenly Father, I pray over your child reading this today. May she (he) grasp this truth and may your Holy Spirit reveal other truths that have been distorted in your body. Free her from the bondage of guilt and fear that comes from performance Christianity and the belief that we have to continuously measure up in order to avoid being discarded by you. Remind her of how expansive and extravagant your love for us is and help her to truly grasp the fact that “… Nothing can separate us from your love.” Thank you for being our Abba Father. Amen!

If you’ve never asked Christ to be Lord of your life please pray this prayer. Lord Jesus, I am sorry for my sin please forgive me, cleanse me, and make me your child. I commit my life to you today. Amen.

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