Jesus said "ask the Holy Spirit"....LaVerne said "ask the Holy Spirit"....

Shannon Suarez

Jesus said "The Holy Spirit is our comforter, helper, intercessor, advocate, strengthener, standby and protector." John 14:26

Our Bible Study teacher, LaVerne Davis (http://www.lavernedavis.org/) has been teaching us about the personality and characteristics of the Holy Spirit for several weeks now. Every week she gently reminds us that we can depend on His faithfulness for everything from emergencies...to being on time to even the small things like what we should have for dinner!

I know this premise to be true...at times I have practiced it diligently...how I am able slip away from practices that serve me and the Lord I will never understand. The stresses of life crowd in so easily and fog us up and confuse us. A modern day practical tool of the one who opposes us.

But here is what happened to me in the last 5 days..........

We have a family member in from out of town. She requires a bi-monthly injection for a condition she battles. It was a last minute trip...she got packed in a hurry and everyone was thankful that in the flux of it all she remembered the refills to her injections...unfortunately she did not remember her identification :(.

Although refilling the medication and retrieving the injection from the pharmacy was a piece of cake...finding someone who was knowledgeable to give the shot was another experience altogether.

Together as a family we have been on a hunt for the last 5 days. Local emergency rooms would not give the injection without her ID, local doctor's offices followed suit. We scrounged our brains for anyone we knew who operated in the nursing field. We learned that their license doesn't allow them to give the shot without ID either. Time was running out, and this situation was weighing heavily on all of our minds.

Since I am by nature a "fixer" I found my mind idling to "who could give this injection??" anytime it was still.

As I went to Curves with my friends Deborah and Shannon...I thought..."who could give this injection??".... as I purchased groceries at a local health store with Shannon I was thinking "who could give this injection??" ....as I went out to give Shannon a ride home from work so she wouldn't have to walk in the cold I was constantly thinking...."who could give this injection??" as I attended my ladies Bible class I found myself asking "who could give this injection??"

We finally found a nurse who said she wanted to think about it, and the following morning when she decided not to we were all feeling a little desperate about where to go next.. I finally realized......I can ask the Holy Spirit!!!

So I said "Holy Spirit...."who could give this injection??" and I heard nothing......... and felt nothing............no angel appeared...no voice of instruction boomed...the earth did not move.

I prepared for bed knowing for certain for the first time that all possibilities had been exhausted and this situation sadly but simply was out of my hands.

When I prepare to sleep in the daytime characteristically I start purposely shutting lights off tidying up and mentally quieting myself down to rest..but on this day I had a wild hair to phone Shannon quickly and see how she was. While chatting on the phone I shared my frustration about the shot with her for the very first time....you will never guess what she said........she said "I used to work in a doctor's office, I have been trained to give an injection!"

Need I say more? She was under my nose the entire time, but the Holy Spirit knew what I did not. Thank you Shannon Suarez, you were a real live vehicle sent by the Holy Spirit on this day. Thank you Holy Spirit for gently teaching me and faithfully being my standby!