Lesson:  Being led by the spirit 

After Jesus rose from the dead but before He returned to the Father, He told the disciples that He would send a Helper to guide them.  We read in John 16:12-14 (NIV)  “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.  All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” 

Jesus is not with me physically but He gave me His Spirit to guide me.  He is leading me on my way to seeing Jesus face to face. He receives from God and gives to me everything I need in this life. I don’t know what the future brings.

The Bible mentions many times that the Spirit led people:

•   He led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted
•   He led Philip into adventure to evangelize the eunuch in the chariot
•   He led Peter  in an unexpected plot twist in God’s plan for Jews and Gentiles to be joined into God’s body
•   He forbade the followers of Jesus to go to places or to speak about Jesus to certain people

We can’t create a formula on how to be led by the Spirit based on these different examples. They have very different outcomes.  The Spirit leads, teaches, forbids, guides, and helps, and this can look like a lot of different things in individual lives. He is a wild card. But we know He is leading us to Himself- to the day we will be like Him.  Along the way, He will give us words to say, ideas to carry out, places to go, people to see.  And all to spread the knowledge of Christ Jesus in the world.

 So how can we make sure we are being led?  There is no formula. We need, moment to moment, to decide that we want Him to lead. Make that confession. We want to draw near to Him and make room for Him to lead, speak, direct.  We are on a journey to follow Him where He leads, and it requires “long obedience in the same direction” (Eugene Peterson). Think of the rocket boosters on a spacecraft that fire in different sequences to keep the spacecraft on target.  The Holy Spirit knows the sequence that we need to stay on course in our walk with the Father. He uses our church community, home group, discipleship relationships, His Word, prayer, and communion – just to name a few.

It’s not that we have to know His will and correct our course. It’s that we continually seek His face and press into Him, and He moves us and keeps us and guides us. We cannot control “how we are doing spiritually” a hundred percent. That is not our aim. Our aim is Him, and He is our focus.

“Take my yoke upon you” (Matthew 11:29) – it’s a conscious decision to draw close, and stay close, to “hitch our wagons to His”, and to quickly repent when we stray. It’s about direction: am I turning toward Jesus and away from my flesh as my boss? Today? Right now? This moment?

My father-in-law says, “God made it simple. We don’t have to make a giant shift. We can take one step in humility towards God each day.”  We don’t focus on the far off destination, we focus on Him one step at a time, and He builds us into faithful children.

(Contributor KW)