A profession that few people are familiar with is that of the butler. I discovered a little more on SABA’s website, that is the South African Butler Academy. At the Academy people are trained to become butlers. The guys look really grand standing there smiling in the photographs in their penguin suits, starched white shirts, bowties and brilliantly polished shoes.

I can just imagine how nice it would be to have someone who does everything for you. Everywhere you have to go the butler will drive you. If you want to have a bath, the water is run for you and is the correct temperature – just as you like it and there are just enough bubbles too. When you get to your room, your clothes and matching shoes are laying waiting on the bed. And off you go to the dining room where the full English breakfast is waiting for you just as you like it. Everywhere you go everything is done for you. Man, it sounds really great to have a butler.

And in a way the Holy Spirit is like a butler. The Holy Spirit prepares everything for us. 5Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. How reassuring to know that the Holy Spirit has prepared everything for us.

We don’t really know what the hereafter is going to be like. We don’t know what road we’re going to take. We don’t know the codes of the gates and alarm systems and uncertainty automatically breeds fear. Just think back to the first time you had to go to a new school, college or university. Even in a new job where everything is unfamiliar the first few days are difficult. We simply don’t like the unfamiliar.

Therefore, we are so lucky to have a butler like the Holy Spirit. He has already prepared everything for us. The Holy Spirit knows the place we still have to get to. He’s been there. Remember, the Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit, therefore He knows God and his home inside out. Therefore, He knows exactly what to do in us so that heaven will one day be our new home.

The Spirit who lives in us will ensure that everything has been prepared for us when one day we walk into the halls of God’s palace, where everything will be unfamiliar to us. As our butler, the Holy Spirit’s job is to make sure that we are prepared to walk through those gates into the halls to make ourselves at home.

“O, here’s another person in whom the spirit lived. He doesn’t have to stand in line; he can go straight inside.”

That’s what our butler does for us. And out of gratitude for what the Holy Spirit has already done for you and me, we will give Him more space in our lives. Why do we insist on taking over his work in our lives? He has been fully trained to do the work perfectly, but we keep on grabbing the steering wheel from Him, just to cause one big pile-up around the next corner.

We must leave our lives to the butler, the Holy Spirit. He knows what to do. Let’s sit back and be sensitive to the Spirit’s guidance. Life will have much less rough and tumble!

Galatians 5:1-6

Reflection

How much control does the Holy Spirit have in your life?

Are you looking forward to the hereafter?

Are you sensitive to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit?

Prayer

Our Father, thank you for placing your Spirit inside us. Thank you that He defends our case and that He is preparing a place for us with You. Please help me to arrange my life on earth in such a way that He will be able to take his rightful place in my life. Please help make us a formidable team that can make a difference in the world. Amen