Why are young people attracted to the Holy Spirit?
The answer quite honestly is not all that different from why anyone is attracted to the Holy Spirit; because we know that we functionally need God in our lives.
We need the love of our heavenly Father.
We need the grace and freedom that only Jesus can give (no matter how hard we try to obtain it on our own).
We need the empowerment of the Holy Spirit daily in our lives guiding us.
Why? So that we may know Him and enjoy Him every day of our lives!
This past July (2014) we held the North Carolina versions of Upward Challenge (for high school age) and With the Wind (for college age and young adults) here at the Community of the Cross in Black Mountain, NC.
Upward Challenge also happened in Alaska, Michigan and the UK and With the Wind took place for the first time this year in Alaska. Both events focused on the need for Jesus’ healing work in our lives and our call to be the embodiment of that work in the world.
This group of Upward Challenge campers had been playing cards together and were recruited to illustrate a life filled with the fruit of the Spirit versus lives without it.
I am consistently amazed by the ministry that the Lord has for each of these young people during these short retreats in the summer.
That brings me back to why young people are so attracted to the Holy Spirit.
Practically, we keep seeing more and more young people grow in spiritual leadership.
We see them owning their faith and gaining further knowledge about how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the advancement of his Kingdom.
Yet, that does not touch what God is doing with the hearts, minds and souls of these young people.
And that is why they want to be where the Holy Spirit is moving: because God is meeting their deepest needs.
Those needs for some are just having a real knowledge of who Jesus is and what he has done and is doing for them personally.
For others it is feeling the Father’s love for the first time and letting it fill the broken places in their lives (of which there can be many).
And yet others are growing in the gifts that God has uniquely blessed them with through the Holy Spirit and they are being commissioned to go back into their communities to see them flourish.
The best part is, despite all of our planning and efforts, we cannot make any of this happen. It is the LORD who meets these young people!
With the Wind teachers Sam Hale, Carla Caviola and Rebecca Modrzynski answer questions about emotional and spiritual healing.
Please join us in giving praise to the Lord for all he has done this summer and is continuing to do in the lives of these young people.
Thank you for the way that you support this ministry to young people through your prayer and participation. It is amazing to behold and beyond praiseworthy!
