Posted: 12/23/2016 at 10:46am | IP Logged

I haven't written in about a year...this past year for me has been an extremely trying one as I unfortunately developed a compromised immune system and went through a lot of sickness and intense misery which I am slowly healing from. And it has been like a Job experience where the attacks from Satan have been obvious and seem to come in multiple directions. But God has been reminding me of the end of Job where God restored and multiplied many times over all that had been stolen by the enemy. In my case, while there was the physical impact of things in the natural that were stolen by the enemy, the greatest affect was the spiritual things that were stolen. At one point I told God that my joy had been stolen. I was enduring such sickness and misery at times that I had little joy in life. I really did just want to go home to be with God. (I really have a compassion now for people who are suffering with diseases and long-term illnesses.) Anyway, God is bringing back my laughter and is bringing back hope. (For a while, hope was a stranger as well during the intense times.) So Christmas is just a few days away, and as I was spending time with God, I was telling Him I want lots of gifts from Him this Christmas. Make no doubt, if our earthly fathers give good gifts to their children, how much more does our heavenly Father give good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11),  and I have seen the truth of that even in Christmas gifts in the past from God...BIG gifts!!

And I was telling God that I want big gifts from Him this year but the big gifts are things like joy and hope and sweetness in His Presence that have been stolen much of the time this past year by ill-health. And I sensed in the spirit the Holy Spirit and just pictured myself crawling into His lap because He is my best friend. But as I crawled into His lap I heard myself call Him "Santa". Now that may seem shocking to some of you. I have not called Him Santa before, but as I heard myself call the Holy Spirit "Santa", I realized that "santo" in Spanish means "holy".

(Like the English words "saint" and "sanctify," santo comes from the Latin word sanctus, meaning "holy.")

http://spanish.about.com/od/spanishvocabulary/a/santo.htm

And I realized the Holy Spirit was having a little play on words and the little puns that He does with me, because He is the "Holy" Spirit, but the holy gifts and fruits of the Spirit come through Him as well. And it was a play on words because during this time of year, many people are concentrating or have a lot of focus on Santa and Christmas from a natural perspective and the Holy Spirit was just bringing to light that He is the original "Santa", the bearer of good gifts from the Father. Not to demean Him in any way by referring to Him as Santa, but I believe the Holy Spirit was showing me that it is truly His delight to bestow His gifts and His fruit onto the children of God. And we see all these old and new movies of Santa and his goodness to all the children and yet we do not always see the Holy Spirit with even that same generosity, and think we have to beg Him for His gifts and His generosity. And some people even seem to get a bit offended that we as Christians would expect or ask for anything from the Holy Spirit other than just want to be with Him. But don't we as children just expect gifts from our own dads and moms at Christmas time without the feeling of guilt at the expectation? Of course we do. And if fathers and mothers enjoy seeing the delight on the children's faces as they open and view their gifts, don't you think the Holy Spirit is enjoying the delight that we get upon receiving His gifts? Some people may not agree with asking the Holy Spirit or the Heavenly Father for a gift for Christmas, but I have seen that the Father loves giving gifts (and I have testimonies of the extravagant gifts that He does give!) and I just want to encourage some of you to take your eyes off of Santa (or the people who play Santa in your life this Christmas) and just crawl into the Father's lap or Jesus or the Holy Spirit and realize He wants to give you something special as well this season!