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&In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths&

From The Desk Of: Mickey G. Quinn                           

“Holy Spirit Compatible”

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Before I begin this little article, it is my most earnest and humble prayer that God's Holy Spirit will lead me in the writing of it as He has put it on my heart to do so. I also pray that He will speak to the hearts of any who will be reading it, that those who don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour will be called to that saving knowledge and that those who do know Him will receive a blessing they will cherish throughout eternity.

In the world of computers there are only two basic formats used to run software. These formats have to do with the language used in writing the software. These languages determine whether the particular software is compatible with a certain computer. One of these formats is called IBM, thus it is IBM compatible. This software will only run on those computers which are IBM compatible. The other format used in writing software is called Apple Macintosh. This software will only run on Apple computers and IBM compatible computers cannot run these programs.

Also in the world of men, there are really only two kinds of language in each given language. First, there is the language of the lost sinner, and then there is the language of the man saved by the grace of God through faith in the shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ. These two languages are not compatible in the opposite man. Just as an IBM compatible computer cannot understand the language of Apple software, neither can a lost man understand the language of a saved man who is led by the Holy Spirit. If you are a lost person reading this little article and you realize that you are a lost sinner and you believe that Jesus Christ died on a cross for your sins, I beg of you to go to Him in sincere, earnest prayer right now before you go any further and ask Him to save you. He will do it if you only believe.

Now, it is a known fact that more than half the marriages in the world end up on the scrap heap and the root of all these tragedies is the same. The problem is that they are not Holy Spirit Compatible. A large number of these are not lost people. People don't have to get divorced for their marriage to have fallen apart. Many Christian homes are filled with resentment and turmoil and in every case, the root is the same. There is a great communication failure in a lot of relationships. For any relationship to grow and remain strong, there has to be constant, honest and open Holy Spirit Compatible communication. That means that just as we talk to God, we know exactly how to talk to Him and we know He listens and understands. We wouldn't dare go to God and tell him something that we knew wasn't true. Or we wouldn't purposely leave something out of our conversation with Him. Likewise, when we speak with our spouse, we must be open and honest with them just as we would with the Lord. What I say to, or fail to say to my wife should be just as if I was talking to God because He knows my heart as I speak to her or fail to speak to her. Likewise, if I don't communicate with her often and fully, our relationship is going to suffer. If I pray regularly, and I would like to see what failure to communicate will do to a relationship, all I need to do is to stop praying for a week. It probably wouldn't even take that long. This doesn't mean that God will stop loving me if I don't communicate with Him. God's love never fails and neither does God's ordained love which is the love that He grants us to have with our marriage partner.

If I stop communicating with my wife, she won't stop loving me, but it will definitely put a strain on our relationship. We too often take little things that mean a lot for granted. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say, "My wife or my husband knows I love them." Well, that may or may not be true, but I wouldn't dare part company or conversation with my wife without saying "I love you". Now I'm not normally a “what if” person, but what if after we parted, the Lord chose to call her or me home to be with Him? I would want the last words she heard me say to be "I love you". Likewise, before we go to sleep at night, I want her to hear me say "I love you". I realize that these are just three simple words and they are just words, but they are Holy Spirit Compatible words and they say more to her than I could say if I read her a book of poetry.

I heard a story once of a little boy who had a best friend and that best friend came to him and showed him a brand new baseball glove his Dad had bought him. Well, the little boy thought, "He surely must be the luckiest guy in the world for his Dad to buy him a glove like that when it's not even his birthday or anything." Well, about that time, the best friend said, "I sure wish my Dad had time to teach me how to play". Now, these are Holy Spirit Compatible words, because anybody who knows the love of God can understand that real love, the kind of love that God ordains, doesn't come in the form of material things.

Now, to the person who doesn't know the love of God or the person who refuses to submit to the leadership of His Holy Spirit, this article will only be a neat story, but the seed will have been planted and that is all my Master has told me to do. That's all my job is. I just plant the seeds and He fertilizes them and waters them and cares for them. Isn't that great! If anyone should benefit from this seed, don't thank me, but praise Him!

Update: Since the original writing of this little article, the Lord has blessed my own heart by giving me a living example of what I’ve been writing about. In the year 2002 I had an in-home Hospice patient who was an elderly man. On Wednesday July the 3

rd of 2002 I stopped by my patient’s house before going to church. While there, as I was talking with my patient and his wife, I shared with them how that my wife and I never part company or go to sleep at night without each of us telling the other “I Love You”. And I went on to say that we never know whether or not that may be the last thing we say to them or hear them say.

Well, the next morning, Thursday morning July the 4

th I went back to their house early to check on my patient. When I arrived, I found my patient unresponsive. As his dear wife knelt on one side of the bed, I knelt on the other side and we each held his hands. We had been there for 15 or 20 minutes and suddenly my patient started to move. When we saw that, I told his wife to “Tell him you love him.” She did and though he could barely get it out, he said, “I love you.” Then he died. I looked at his wife and said, “You know what was the last thing you said to each other” and she said, “I love you”. I told her, God gave you that to cherish until you see him again.

That was a blessing a plenty to my heart and I trust to hers as well, but God just keeps blessing and on Thursday night 12/28/2007, five years later and the last Thursday of 2007, I was working at the Hospice House and as my shift was nearing an end. I had just come out of a patient’s room and a young man followed me out. When we got out into the hall the young man said, “Your name is Mickey isn’t it?” When I told him it was he said, “You took care of my Grandpa when he was sick and here you are helping out with my Grandma” After going back into the room it occurred to me who she was. That lady died that night and the Lord allowed me to be there with her as she left to go be with her Lord and her husband.

Now, even if I had an imagination enough to even consider such a blessing, there is no way that I could have even planned it, much less to cause it to come to pass.

We recently had our Missions Conference at my church and my constant thought throughout all I heard and saw was if the Lord would just use me to do more. Well, early the very next week, the Volunteer Coordinator for the Hospice that I volunteer for asked me if I would be what they call “an 11

th Hour On Call Volunteer” and be on call to be with dying patients who have no one in their final hours. I didn’t even have to think about it as I immediately said yes. No one should ever have to live alone and they certainly should never have to die alone. I praise the Lord for seeing fit to use me in this.