Thank God that the Holy Spirit is a Holy Spirit, if He was subject to humanlike passions and made like humans with the ability and capacity He has, there’s no escaping pride, and that pride would be fully justified because what He does … phew!

I have seen Him in His element too often to ever doubt but alas, I still find myself in situations that only reveal doubt in my heart and times like that, I find my heart and mind in conflict, with my heart throwing the blame and my mind being the perpetuator.

I was expecting my sisters this evening, I thought it would be nice for them to get home to some good food so I decided I would cook jollof rice and chicken (even though one of them is vegetarian) for them to come home to. I woke up really early cause I had to do this cooking before heading for work and as I stood before the cooker, I was reminded that I am fasting. For about 5 mins, I stood still deciding whether or not I was skipping today because there was no way I was cooking food for people without tasting it first. I’m not there yet.

As I played around the idea of extending the end of my fast date because I am skipping today, the Holy Spirit whispered in my heart ‘How about you trust me to do the cooking?‘, I actually laughed out loud and I said to myself “Holy Spirit I trust you oh, but other people are eating this food, not just me”. He said it again, ‘let me help you‘. In that moment, as hard as it was, I decided I will carry on my fast and rely on the Holy Spirit to cook that food, to tell me when to add condiments, the quantity to add and also tell me when it was ready to be taken off the fire (I often taste food as I cook to determine all these, don’t judge me).

I was panicking within but I had made up my mind. I was going to cook this food without tasting it.

It took me about 1 hour and 30 mins to finish and through the entire process, I actually heard when He said ‘add salt‘, ‘a little more‘, ‘reduce the fire‘ and finally when He said ‘it is ready‘. When I took it off the cooker, I remember staring at it for a few moments thinking to myself ‘Holy Spirit can I just taste it to be sure it is good?’, I was met with silence.

I had 14 minutes to grab my stuff and leave for work, so I did just that, once in a while thinking back to the pot of jollof rice and chicken in the house that I did not taste throughout cooking.

I got home, a little more anxious than usual, prayed to break my fast, and got to the kitchen. I had a spoon of the jollof rice and a hugeeeee smile was plastered across my face like ‘Rubie, why would you even doubt the Spirit of God‘. Like I said in the beginning, if the Holy Spirit was subject to humanlike passions, that was cue for the Holy Spirit to say ‘well, didn’t I tell you???‘, but as the gentle Spirit He is, He said ‘Just Trust me a little more‘. And then I had a mini worship session right before I ate what happens to be the best jollof rice and southern fried chicken I have made (WITHOUT TASTING IT).

Your takeaway could be to allow the Holy Spirit let you cook without tasting the food, but the bigger take away is to trust Him, even in the seeming small, mundane tasks. I love that God chooses to reveal the doubt in my heart through things like this, it makes no sense to me, how I can believe God to heal my uncle of cancer, but I cannot believe that the same Spirit that will bring the healing will not tell me when to stop adding salt or reduce the fire.

My faith, trust, hope and love was refined today and somewhere in my Spirit, I hope yours is refined too. The Holy Spirit gat you. Trust Him.