My dear Covenant Partners and GEM Family,
(Let this be your Opening Prayer at the very beginning of your day upon rising, before every important task, and before every session of prayer).
Come, Holy Spirit, and overshadow me with your gentle wisdom and power as I endeavor to sit at the feet of Jesus during this period of prayer. Purify my mind and heart as I seek to make the teachings of Jesus my priority in life, thinking, speaking, and doing as He desires. You are the Keeper of my soul, leading me into God’s heart. May I be docile and submissive to your wisdom and guidance, and may my life be a pleasing offering in your sight, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
This prayer highlights the special place and function of the Holy Spirit in our lives as disciples of Jesus. In His Great Discourse, Jesus gives us a vivid description of the Holy Spirit’s function. The Holy Spirit comes to those who invite Him, who are willing to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Only in the Holy Spirit can we receive new life in Jesus or be reborn. Very deliberately, therefore, we ask the Holy Spirit to come and rule in our hearts as our Guardian. We ask the Holy Spirit to overshadow us with His gentle wisdom and power.
Whenever the temple was consecrated, in Exodus 40:34 and 1Kings 8:10, the presence of God overshadowed it. God made it clear that He was Emmanuel, God dwelling among His people. Similarly, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be made into temples of the Blessed Trinity, becoming God’s abode. So, in our prayer we ask that the Holy Spirit overshadow us as well. Jesus said, “The Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming” (John 16:13). In other words, the Holy Spirit will always point us in the direction of Jesus, re-creating us in the image and likeness of Jesus, thus making us very pleasing to the Father.
So, we ask the Holy Spirit to purify our minds and hearts so that we will live according to the teachings of Jesus. We can only know the Person of Jesus through accepting His teachings. With gratitude and joy, we state the amazing truth that the Holy Spirit is the Guardian of our souls. He is our Advocate given to us by the Father at the request of Jesus, working tirelessly on our behalf. We firmly believe that He will bring us into God’s heart. We ask for the blessing and grace to be docile and submissive to His wisdom and guidance, as Mary was in her submission to the Holy Spirit, so that our lives may be a sweet-smelling offering in God’s sight. And we pray this prayer in Jesus’ name.
When you invoke the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit throughout the day, you will experience Him as the Keeper of your soul. Through the Holy Spirit you will come to know Jesus more intimately, and the Father through Him. In living under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit, you will become a credible witness for the Kingdom of God! And you will find yourself being re-created in the image and likeness of Jesus! God bless you! You are in our daily prayers!
