Cultivate a posture of welcome to the Holy Spirit’s presence by trying one of two breath prayers. The first is simple welcome — “come, Holy Spirit.” Which can be briefly, repeatedly prayed throughout the day.

The second mirrors Jesus’ words in John 20: inhale “peace you give me” exhale “as you send me.”

Pick one and stay with it this week.

Soul Shepherding has more on breath prayer as a spiritual practice.

Jesus described the Holy Spirit as “the Helper.” And so one of the most immediate ways we can welcome the Holy Spirit into our lives is by cultivating a habit of asking for the Holy Spirit’s help throughout our days.

Where “Breath Prayers” serve us by welcoming the Spirit’s presence, these short, even pithy pleas act as our welcome to the Spirit’s help, often called “Arrow Prayers.”

Some examples adapted from John 14 could be: “Holy Spirit, help me trust Jesus! That his works will continue through me.” Or, “Holy Spirit, help me pray for this situation in Jesus’ name, in Jesus’ motives and heart.” Or, “Holy Spirit, help me love Jesus more that I may keep his commandments.”

Whether it’s one of these, or spontaneous words that arise in the moment, consider a regular moments of pressure, temptation, or challenge you often face each week, and what when you meet them this week you can pray in the moment.

Jesus said his sheep hear his voice — not as a distant memory, but as a living reality. The Spirit's role, he told the disciples, is to “teach and remind you of everything I have said to you." Listening prayer is simply creating space for that to happen.

The practice is disarmingly simple: bring a question, a scripture, or just your name before God, then wait in silence. You might journal what surfaces. You might receive nothing and offer the waiting itself as trust.

This week, try bringing your scripture reading into this posture. Before you read, offer a brief invitation — "Holy Spirit, I'm listening." Read slowly, and when a word or phrase catches your attention, stop. Don't move on. Sit with it. Wait and see what the Spirit does with it. Share it with your discipleship cohort. 

Renovaré has a helpful introduction to listening prayer as a historic Christian practice.

The Prophet Isaiah, when asked by God, "Who shall I send? Who will go for us?" responded without hesitation — "Here I am. Send me."

This week, try pairing that same posture with something you already do. Whenever you pick up your keys to head out, pause for a moment. Think of who you'll encounter — neighbors, coworkers, strangers in line — and hold them briefly in prayer. Then offer simply: "Here I am. Send me."

The pairing with your keys does two things. It makes the practice effortless to remember, anchored to a moment you already have. And it lets the keys themselves become an image of the prayer — make me a key, Holy Spirit. Through my words and presence, let me unlock something true in the people I meet today. Make me a key to your kingdom.

Psalm 139 invites us into what we might call, “searching prayer:”

"Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts and concerns. See if there is any offensive — any idolatrous — way in me; lead me in the everlasting way."

Out of our desire to partner with the Spirit in revealing Jesus and his Kingdom to the world, we want to cultivate times of first welcoming the Spirit’s work of unveiling, of convicting, our own hearts and lives so we can more fully receive both the forgiveness and forming work of Jesus in us.

At the beginning or end of your day — perhaps alongside Scripture — simply open yourself to the Spirit's voice and ask:

• What's really wrong in me right now? Where have I been rejecting, replacing, or trying to reshape Jesus?

• What's really right — what does Jesus look like — that I'm being called into?

• Where am I not living in the hope of what Jesus has already won?

As a note, while the Spirit will often respond by unveiling or naming something, both the Enemy and often times our own propensity to shame and guilt will try to latch on in that moment, taking what the Spirit intends for life and growth and turning it into greater shame and defeat. Part of learning to listen to the Spirit, is also learning to silence or still those voices.

Jesus told his disciples the Spirit would "take all that is mine and give it to you." The Spirit comes to guide us in and give us the way, truth, and life of Jesus — but receiving requires an open hand.

The Suscipe is an ancient prayer of surrender and openness, made famous by Ignatius of Loyola:

Take, Lord, and receive — my freedom, my memory, my understanding, my will. All I have, you first gave me. I return it. Do with it as you will. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough.

Try praying it this week with a simple gesture, possibly as you sit with a cup of coffee to begin your day. Begin with hands closed, name what you're gripping — a fear, an ambition, a need for control. "Take, Lord and receive…" as you open your hands, prayerfully imagining each of those things falling out and into God's. Then turn your open hands up in a posture of receiving — whatever love, grace, or word the Spirit may have for you today.

This can be practiced as a morning prayer, or in the moments that litter our days when we realize we are carrying what isn't ours to carry, or walking more in our way, believing our truth, or fighting for our life rather than receiving Jesus'.

In John 17, Jesus prays for us to be one. Intercession — bringing others before God in prayer — is an expression of that oneness, and one of the ways the Spirit deepens it in us. Welcoming him means doing what Jesus did: holding others before the Father.

This week, try holding one — or all three — of these groups in prayer:

01 A fellow member of Alabaster, or someone in your Discipleship cohort Bring their burdens, their joys, their needs before God. Ask the Spirit to deepen the oneness between you.

02 Another church community in Asheville Ask God to bless and work within that community — that his Spirit would move in and through them just as you're praying he would in you.

03 Someone who hasn't yet come to know Jesus and his love Pray that they would come to believe — that the same Spirit drawing you deeper into Jesus would draw them to him for the first time.