Many Christians mistakenly believe that encounters with the Holy Spirit “happen to you” rather than that we have a choice to experience the Holy Spirit. Biblical truth seems to indicate the latter, that we choose to develop and nurture the state of “being in the Holy Spirit” as a deliberate action of faith. This is the story of the river of God in Ezekiel 47. It’s a picture of how we learn to navigate in God’s spiritual world – like delving more and more deeply into a river.
Centering prayer is practicing being “in the Holy Spirit”, as are or other forms of Christian meditation where we focus on residing in the realm of the spirit through stillness of the mind and soul. As we become familiar with this realm that is closeness to God, we are being trained to grab more and more moments during the day to tap into the immenseness of God through silence and a shift of consciousness “into the river of God.”
Rob Gerhard 