Encouragement
I have often heard of a brother or sister doing something or other that they were led by the Spirit of God to do. It’s always exciting to hear about because most of us are genuinely timid concerning, and in fear of, what we may be led by the Spirit to do. You hear a lot of “Wow, that was awesome! I could never do that!” when confronted by the news of the Spirit’s transformation of mild mannered Clark Kent that has been sitting in the pew next to you for years and, suddenly, does something so outrageously inspired that it actually convicts you of “lukewarmness” just hearing about it.
I often wonder, for all the lip-service we hear about being Spirit-led, what would actually happen in our daily lives if we unchained the Spirit from our fears and desire for social acceptance and allowed Him to burst forth each day of our lives to lead us down whatever road He wished to lead us.
What if we were actually guided by the Spirit? What if we allowed Him to completely guide our lives? What if every choice we made, in every moment we had, was made for the sole purpose of pleasing the Jesus that longs to “out-dwell” us as much as indwell us.
We know from scripture that we have been sealed in the Spirit, but how often do we realize that we were sealed “in” the Spirit? Not the other way around. And yet our walk can so often reflect an attitude that somehow the Spirit is sealed in us! We try and hide Him away like He was a treasure that must be kept locked away and safe from possible thieves. No! We are sealed (marked) “in” Him! He dwells “in” us, not as a prisoner but as an eternal life giving promise seeking to reach out through us. So what would happen if we stopped trying to lock the doors from the outside? How laughable must we be in the eyes of the Heavenly Host trying to bar the gates against the works of the Creator inside us!
What if, instead of futilely trying to bar the gates so that we do not offend our work buddies or the guy that has sat next to us in the pew on Sundays, we ripped those doors open and yelled “Road Trip!” inside. Do you think the Spirit of God would remain inside to watch the latest episode of “American Idol”? No, of course not! He would grab the keys, yell “I’ll fly and buy, come with me!” and move.
What would that be like to say to the Spirit, “Where you go, I will go. And where you stay, I will stay!” and really do it? Would you ask for a helmet, or just jump in, no questions asked?
What would you be like if you allowed yourself to be dauntlessly and courageously led by the Spirit of God that dwells, right now, in you?
Would you leap from bed the first morning without the aid of an alarm in anticipation of all the amazing things you were going to do through the Spirit? Would you take time to brush your teeth and dress in something other that your jammies? or would you run out the door of your house and begin singing worship songs and hymns out the top of your sunroof as the Spirit led you to your first stop?
What about the people you met? Would you be afraid to approach them for fear that your apparel would be a “put off” or that you may not know the answer to their questions or that, heaven forbid, they may reject you? Or would you actively seek out people and let the Spirit do the talking? Would you share the joy and sense of elation each and every time you shared the good, no GREAT, news of Jesus Christ?
Would you take a sack lunch with you or would you trust in God’s provision? Would you make multiple stops on the way to “test the Spirit” or would you be too consumed by the work of the Spirit? Would you cry tears of utter joy with every decision for Christ or question the heart of the decider? Imagine surrendering fully, completely, and unconditionally to the leading of the Spirit, how would the life you lead be transformed into the life Christ wants you to lead? What would be different?
How many times do we read the Word and use it like a Global Positioning Satellite to tell us the goal, and then, when the Spirit tells us the route He wants us to take, we take, quite selfishly, a route that we think is faster, or the one with less traffic? The Spirit revels in traffic, the worse the better, because it provides us with that many more opportunities to connect and reflect God’s love!
I know, all of this sounds so…um…juvenile. By now you are thinking that I am a baby Christian, that certainly, when I achieve Spiritual maturity, I will put these flights of fancy aside.
But consider this, what would your actions be if you found out that you just won a fortune in the Powerball lottery? Would you wait for a week so that you could redeem it on Sunday, your traditional day for claiming great prizes? Would you make sure that you were wearing your best attire and fulfilled your responsibilities at work? Would you make sure that your hours were correct on your time card to the last minute? Would you wait to tell your family until a convenient time when there was peaceful interlude between bickering over who get’s the drumstick?
Or would you freak out and start calling everyone, get in your Volkswagen Beetle and darn near break the sound barrier to announce to the world that you are a winner?
I am personally convicted by the fact that I might be transformed more by winning Powerball than I sometimes am by the infinitely more valuable treasure of God’s grace through the work of Jesus Christ. Aren’t you?
So, what would happen if you surrendered completely to the leading of the Spirit? And what would happen to our communities if we all did?
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Excellent food for thought...good article.
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