"And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him." -Ephesians 1:13-14 NLT
In the game of baseball, catchers communicate with pitchers using a series of nonverbal signals that is sometimes given to them by the manager/coach. The finger signals verbalize the various types of pitches, whether if it is a fastball, knuckleball, curveball, slider, change up, etc. In addition, the pitcher and catcher go through a series of signals until they agree on a good pitch selection. Typically, the most common way for the catcher to successfully relay a signal is using the fingers of his throwing hand. The pitcher and catcher will not be able to communicate verbally because they would give the pitch type away to the opposite team who is batting or on base. Pitching signals are essential throughout a baseball game especially when the manager, pitcher, and catcher understands the tendencies of the batters on the other team. For baseball players, it takes time and effort to film study your opponent to properly distinguish their preferences. The right pitching signal will not only help the pitcher and catcher to be on the same page, but it will increase the chances of delivering strikeouts and limit walks, which can hopefully lead to wins.
Football has its own secret signals. Perhaps you’ve noticed how coaches or the offensive coordinators would wear headsets during professional football games. They do this to communicate with their players on the field by calling offensive or defensive plays. In college football (in particular, the NCAA), while coaches and coordinators also wear head sets, you will also see teams verbalize to their players on the field using signals or huge play cards that coordinators or the backup quarterback hold over their heads. These provide signals to call plays, give a formation (determine how players position themselves on the field), speed up the communication between the offensive coaches and players, or fool the defense as a decoy. On these play cards, you will find four pictures of various things. For example, words, movie references, sports teams, memes, etc. One difference that you will find between NCAA football and the National Football League (NFL) is that the NFL quarterbacks have microphones in their helmets. Therefore, they have more leeway to call their own plays and audible (change plays at the line depending on what they see at the line) into another play. Pitching signals, play cards, head sets, and/or any nonverbal signals are key particularly as it pertains to communicating in huge arenas/stadiums with load, raucous fan bases.
Has there ever been in time in your life where you felt alone? Guess what? You don’t have to feel alone. The Holy Spirit is available to us and lives inside of the hearts of those who believe in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 3:16, John 14:27). The Trinity is one God in three persons; one of whom is the Holy Spirit, who is the third person of the Trinity (the first is God and the second is Jesus Christ). Before ascending into Heaven, Jesus left us an advocate and that is the Holy Spirit (John 14:26) who is able to lead and guide us as we go throughout our daily life. John 16:13 lets us know that “when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own but will tell you what He has heard.”
Has there ever been a time where you felt sad? God will give you the strength to pray regardless of how you may be feeling or even if you simply don’t know what to say in prayer. The Holy Spirit will give us the words to say, and He will pray on our behalf as it says in Romans 8:26-27.
Has there ever been a time where someone made you upset to the point where you wanted to yell at them or seek revenge? Always remember that the Lord always has our backs and He will fight our battles. God doesn’t want us to retaliate and make a bad decision that we will regret later. That is why it is critical for us to allow the Holy Spirit to bear His fruit within us so that we can love and serve others (Galatians 5:22-23).
Have you encountered a situation where you needed to make a difficult decision (accepting a job, leaving a job, courting a significant other, finding a church home, etc.)? God wants a close relationship with you in which He wants you to consult Him before making any major decision. God doesn’t want us to consult Him because He wants to smother us but because He knows “the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10). Also, He wants to save us from ourselves. He wants us to seek His will for our lives because He knows what is best for us. “God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways” (Isaiah 55:8). Sometimes we make monumental mistakes because of our flesh, lack of patience, disobedience, and our unwillingness to keep God at the forefront of our lives. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” Receive clarity from God first in prayer about the decisions of life and He will prompt you through the Holy Spirit as it pertains to next step to take. We all have all made mistakes in our lives, but God’s grace is sufficient enough to forgive us of our sins if we repent.
The Holy Spirit is our “ultimate signal caller” who can help us fully understand the difference between right and wrong. Understanding the difference is so important because there are two destinations that people will live for eternity, either heaven or hell. The awesome thing about God is that He loves us so much that He doesn’t want any one of us to perish (2 Peter 3:9). God is like a gentleman who doesn’t force us to serve Him. He gives us the free will to make the decision to surrender our lives to Him or reject Him. Although He is a loving God, He is also a just God. We will face the consequences for the decision that we make. Eternity depends on it. Those who decide to reject God and are unwilling to repent of their sins will live for eternity in hell. But God made the ultimate sacrifice by allowing His Son, Jesus to die for our sins on our behalf. As a result, we can believe in Jesus Christ, repent of our sins, have a relationship with Him, and have eternal life in heaven. The amazing about Jesus Christ is that He is not only the Son of God, but He is also our friend. What a friend we have in Jesus!
Seek God first in your life through communication with Him in prayer, studying the Bible, and being led the Holy Spirit. Then watch how God will change your life for the better. The Holy Spirit serves so many functions in the lives of Christians. If you are a Christian, are you willing to allow God to take the lead through the Holy Spirit, if haven’t done so already? If you are not a Christian, let’s change that and make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life today.
With God, you never need to feel alone.
Romans 8:10-20
Romans 12:19
1 John 4:7-21
Galatians 2:20
Ephesians 1:13-14