Personal From Ministerial and Member Services

As We Approach Pentecost, Are You Walking in the Holy Spirit? Part 2

Last time, I wrote of my friendship with a member of God’s Church, Bob Neff, who became a quadriplegic at age 16. Bob was 53 years old when I first met him. He died five years later, in 1995. During the five years I knew Bob, we visited on a number of occasions.

Bob always inspired me with his humor, his determination and his grit. I remember one visit when Bob was up in his wheelchair and was at his computer. I was intrigued by how he would manipulate the keyboard with a device in his mouth as he hit the appropriate keys. Bob was showing me how he would use a Bible software program in his Bible study. I’m reasonably sure that Bob was more adept at using a computer than I was at the time.

Bob knew his Bible quite well and we spent hours talking about the scriptures, especially in early 1995 with all that was developing in the Worldwide Church of God. Bob was quite sure of God’s truth and his understanding of it—not in a haughty way, but with a genuine godly confidence and humility that may have been a result of his very humble circumstances.

I really can’t think of anyone that I knew for such a short time who has affected me and inspired me to be as serious about my calling and my conversion. I think it may be because I understood that Bob, in a sense, was forced to focus on the spiritual in order to survive the physical state and condition that he was doing his best to manage. Bob was totally dependent on other human beings for his survival each day of his life for over 40 years. I truly admired Bob for his mental tenacity, but I firmly believed it was God working in Him that was keeping him alive. Bob had learned to walk in the Spirit! That is what I found so inspiring!

How about you? You probably don’t have the physical and mental hardships to face and wrestle with to the same degree that Bob did. How are you doing as we are counting down to Pentecost? Are you walking in the Spirit? Are you increasing in love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and self-control?

We are all called to be overcomers. If we are not in the process of overcoming our carnal nature and Satan’s influence in our lives, we will continue to walk in the flesh, producing the fruit or works of the flesh. The apostle Paul lists a whole host of sinful behaviors he refers to as the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21, stating that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. He admonishes us to “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

Paul also wrote of those who have repented of their sins, been baptized, and accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, as those who now “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

In large part, Bob’s life was seemingly over at age 16. God in His mercy and, perhaps, because of what He saw in Bob’s makeup and character, called Bob to a knowledge of His truth and opened his mind to understanding by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Bob walked in “newness of life” for many years. Undoubtedly, many in his small community were affected by the spiritual changes that were taking place in Bob as he learned to “walk in the Spirit.”

Bob died shortly after the United Church of God formed in 1995, but he was there at the very first service in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The funeral home was fully packed with “standing room only” as members of the church and members of the community flocked to show their respects to a life well lived.

May we all inspire one another to “walk in the Holy Spirit of God!”

Wishing you all a very blessed and peaceful Sabbath day!