Holy Spirit Archives - Joy Margetts

About this time last year I wrote a blog about boats. We had just returned from a canal holiday and God had chosen to speak to me about going forward slowly and not rushing things. You can’t rush on a canal. And you need to go slow in order to keep control of the hunk of steel you are steering. You can read that blog here.

Another canal trip

We did it again. A few weeks ago, we ventured out onto the British waterways in a canal boat – a slightly smaller and easier to handle one this time. I perhaps should have reminded myself of what to expect by rereading that blog from a year ago. I hadn’t forgotten the restful, slow pace, or the beauty and peace of being so close to nature – but I had forgotten the sheer physicality of it, the exhaustion, and stress! It was a mixed blessing of a holiday!

A few days ago, I was in a prayer meeting for our Kingdom Story Writers. Several people were sharing how they were inundated with ideas or had more than one project on the go. They were asking us to pray that they would have wisdom to know which to invest their time and creativity into. As we were praying God reminded me of the canal.

Go where the canal is going

Now the thing about canals, unlike roads and footpaths, is that once you are on them you can only go where they go. There are the occasional branches off that you can explore, but most of the time you are forced to follow the main channel. Of course this is because they were constructed to connect one industrial centre with another. When you are on a canal boat you go where the canal takes you. You can detour all you like when you are out for a walk, or a drive in the country, but it isn’t so easy on a canal.

I sensed what God was saying. There is a channel of flowing water that He wants us to stay in! He knows the best way for us, and it is where His Spirit is leading. The call to us is to stay in the canal boat – to stay focussed on the flow of His living water – and not let ourselves be distracted by paths, or culverts, or streams that aren’t ours to take.

Staying on the right canal

How do we know we are on the right path (canal)?

Psalm 119:105 is a familiar verse to many of us

‘Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path’.

I read this again earlier this week and was reminded that God has provided two sources of illumination to help us. A lamp that shines on our feet so that we can see which step to take, and a light that we can hold up to see the path ahead.

God’s word is full of truth that can help us to make good and right decisions as we go through life. But sometimes it doesn’t always give us answers to the specifics – like which book project I should be working on right now!

Galatians 5:25 tells us to ‘walk in the Spirit’. God has given us His word as a road map of sorts for life in general, but I believe He has also given us the gift of His Spirit to discern and make wise choices about the everyday things.

Consult the map

Each morning, on our canal boat, before we set off to tackle the next stretch of the canal and its numerous locks (too many locks!) we would consult a very helpful canal boat map app we had on our phones. This was a sensible thing to do – to be able to anticipate how far we would be able to go, what challenges we might face, and how long it might take us. We wouldn’t be diverting from the main canal channel, but we still needed guidance for the day. As we approached each challenge (lock) we would be able to prepare ourselves. When we knew we needed to moor we would anticipate the best place to stop (one with lots of room as we were less than expert at this manoeuvre). We did this by communicating with each other – skipper and crewman.

Stay on the canal

It is good to start the day in God’s word, or in fact to read it anytime we can. The Bible has lots to teach us about how He wants us to live. It can even prepare us for the challenges ahead. But there is also the ongoing conversation that we need to be having with God. Listening out for that small voice, that inner knowing, that sense of peace – that comes from knowing we are walking in communion with Him, and being led by His Spirit.

So, stay on the canal! Let the water flow take you where He wants you to go. And enjoy the ride, even when it is hard and challenging, because walking with Him truly is the place of beauty and peace.

Joy Margetts is a published author and blogger. Her heart is to share God’s heart for the broken; His love that pursues us, truth that frees us and hope that heals us. Her novels are set in medieval Wales against the backdrop of Cistercian abbey life, and tell stories of faith, hope and God’s redemptive power. She has also published two devotionals based on the person and work of Jesus.

More information on Joy, and her books can be found here

Image of an early sunrise breakking through the clouds

Today is Pentecost Sunday, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the early church (Acts 2:1-4) A day to celebrate the Holy Spirit and all that He means to us. I admit to waking with a special sense of expectation today. We long so much for a new outpouring of His Spirit. We pray fervently for it and today seemed like the perfect opportunity for Him to come in a fresh and exciting way.

But I have learnt that expectation (wanting to see things happen in a certain way ) and expectancy (being open to whatever He wants to do) are two very different things. I may expect Him to come in a certain way – for it to look like something – what I have imagined, or read about happening, in other places at other times.

As I enjoyed worship this morning in church, I knew He had come. These are the words that He inspired me to put down on paper in that moment.

What does it look like when you come?

Sometimes it looks like arms raised high in extravagant praise, an outpouring of thankfulness. A dance, a celebration, or a falling to the knees in adoration.

Sometimes it looks like empowerment, the faith to pray for the impossible. Miracles, wisdom, supernatural enabling, things beyond our human understanding.

Sometimes it looks like joy, deep bubbling laughter that invades and overtakes, overflows and saturates. Contagious and life giving.

Sometimes it looks like tears, an undoing, a deep healing. Or a painful awareness of sin, and a submission of self. An invitation to restoration and renewal.

Sometimes it looks like… nothing.

You come, certain as the wind, but no-one sees it.

But I know you are there. Quiet. Whispering your love, embracing me in Your presence.

And I receive Your outpouring again.

Joy Margetts is a published author and blogger. Her books are works of Christian Historical fiction. Set in medieval Wales against the backdrop of Cistercian abbey life, they tell stories of faith, hope and God’s redemptive power. Her debut novel ‘The Healing‘ was published by Instant Apostle on 19 March 2021.

‘The Pilgrim‘, her second full length novel, was published by Instant Apostle on 22 July 2022, and her third novel, ‘The Bride‘, published on 20th October 2023. Her first non-fiction book, an Advent Devotional, ‘Christ Illuminated‘ was published in September 2023.