Following the Holy Spirit is an Advantage not a Disadvantage

by John Edwards

Recently I decided to cycle to Brisbane City, from a suburb of Ipswich.

I hadn't cycled that route before, so I was really just discovering the bike-ways as I went along.

I was going along merrily, feeling at peace. The bikeway took me under the Jindalee bridge—then I kept going straight ahead—and suddenly, I lost my sense of peace. It felt like I was meant to stop.

So I stopped for a moment, got off the bike, and looked at the view. Then I got back on the bike and started cycling again, straight-ahead. But every cycle I pedalled felt 'wrong'.

I didn't know why—I wondered whether I was meant to go back home from there? I didn't really want to though—because I was determined to make it all the way to the City.

But the contrast between feeling at peace at first, and then suddenly not feeling at peace at all, was striking enough that eventually, just out of sheer integrity, I had to turn around, and I started cycling back.

When I got back to the place where I'd first felt, 'Stop,' I noticed a pathway leading off to the side. I hadn't seen it earlier. Then I noticed a sign which said, "City". I'd missed it—I'd cycled straight past!

Had I kept going straight-ahead the way I had been before, I don't know where I might have ended up, but it wouldn't have been the City!

I realised God wasn’t stopping me from going to the City after all—He was just trying to help me do it!

And God was faithful to help me, within seconds, within metres of needing His guidance.

So I turned up the pathway, and carried-on cycling all the way to the City, my peace returned.

Since you were born again and received the Spirit of God, God is leading you by His Spirit in your spirit.

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14).

The real you is a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body. God's Spirit primarily leads you through your spirit—not primarily through your body, nor even your soul.

With my mind I wanted to keep cycling straight ahead, thinking that was the way to the City; and I didn't feel like stopping or turning around: but it was in my spirit that I felt arrested.

God leads us through our spirit, because that's where the Holy Spirit is: He’s in our spirit!

“He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (I Corinthians 6:17).

In all matters of life and ministry then, we can learn to become more conscious of how the Holy Spirit may be making our spirit feel, and not just rely on our understanding nor be influenced too much by our emotions.

When your spirit feels at peace, often that's a 'greenlight' from the Lord; and when your spirit is unable to find a settled peace, often that's the Holy Spirit saying 'no' or trying to get your attention.

And very often it mightn't immediately make sense to your mind; it might even feel like it's getting in the way of your emotional happiness! But really He's only trying to help not harm.

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5,6).