Making Decisions

A good friend asked me something like:

"There's a leaders' lunch on next Sunday. Can I go? Brother I_____ is asking for confirmation by today or tomorrow."

"If you feel led to," I answered.

"I think I want to. And I think I should go. I'm letting you know because that will affect our schedule," she said.

"Yeah, sounds appropriate," I said, "So just check how you feel in your spirit. And if you feel a green light, then why not!"

I explained: "Emotion (wanting to go) and obligation (feeling you should go) are never good reasons for decision-making. The best reason for a decision is if, after checking-in with the Holy Spirit, He gives your spirit a smooth, nice, 'go' feeling. If you weren't meant to go, you'd instead be feeling an awkward sense of dread in your spirit."

"Yes," she answered.

Then I gave an illustration from my own recent experience.

"You know how I felt uncomfortable committing to do that lecture for brother J_____ next Tuesday? Remember I wondered whether there might be something else that I might be meant to do on that day which I didn't know about yet?"

"Uh huh," she said.

"Well...last night brother A_____ contacted me, inviting me to go to Ipswich on Tuesday and attend two meetings, then stay overnight in his house, then he wants to bring a group to the Gold Coast to attend our Soak meeting on Wednesday night. At the same time, I'll be able to inspect my house."

"Wow! Thats great!" she exclaimed.

"He wants me to minister the Holy Spirit in two meetings."

She smiled.

"I would have felt pretty bad last night, after hearing that, if I'd [already] committed to brother J_____ without being sure I was meant to commit," I pointed-out.

"Yes," she said understandingly, "Good on you..."

"It was really hard seeing brother J_____ walk away from me on Sunday, seeing his disappointment; and seeing the look of 'I'm not sure about all this,' on sister I_____'s face," I revealed.

"Yes, I know - and people might not understand that, but the Lord knows," she said.

And she mentioned that she's had similar experiences.

"It will be good for her to know that even though we dont understand things, the Lord knows. All we need to do is yield," she affirmed.

"Yes," I said, "'The spirit of man is the candle [the lamp, the searching light, the revealing light, the guiding-light] of the Lord', says the Book of Proverbs."

"Yes," she said.

"The spirit of man! Our own spirit! God's Spirit registers His feelings on our own spirit," I said.

"That's right. The real us! the inner man," she said.

"Even non-Christians who are dead in trespasses and sins - they still sense what God is impressing on their spirit. That's how we come to Christ," I said.

"Exactly," she said.

"If God can draw a sinner through his spirit, how much more can He guide us, now that our spirit has been made alive to God, and His Spirit actually lives in our spirit and we are one spirit with the Lord!" I added.

Staying Free in the Spirit

"...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" - II Cor.3:17

In the process of learning to be led by the Holy Spirit, it's important we understand that the Holy Spirit gives us liberty - He doesn't bring us back under another type of fear and bondage. If we're not careful, that which was intended to give us liberty can end-up bringing us into another type of bondage. I'll explain...

Perhaps we were once bound by obligations and limited by our own thinking, and then we began to become free of it through learning to be led by the Holy Spirit. We began to experience the freedom and limitless blessing that come by following the Spirit instead of remaining bound by obligation or limited by our own understanding.

But then while enjoying the new lifestyle, if we're not careful, we can allow a fear of missing God's perfect leading to begin to negatively effect us. We can become nervous, harsh, irritable, judgmental, condemned, regretful, sorrowful, stressed and striving. That which was intended for our liberty turns into bondage.

The key is to remember that God gave us the Holy Spirit to help us, to empower us, to make us happier - not to give us a harder set of rules to follow.

It can happen in church-life too. For example, in the pre-reformation days when much of the Church was bound by the wrong belief that only the ordained clergy could minister in the church, God began revealing to believers that anyone can contribute to a church-service even if he's a layman. So the Brethren Church was inaugurated in order to have a freer, more blessed type of church-service where any of the brethren could contribute as the Spirit leads.

But in their zeal to cherish that new concept of freedom, some of the Brethren went too far and felt it's wrong to ordain a pastor. In an effort to protect their newfound revelation about the liberty of the brethren, they created another stringent rule of their own: that it's wrong to have a Senior Pastor. It negatively affected some of their consciences and hindered the growth of some of their congregations. Some Brethren churches got free of it, ordained pastors, and grew.

Whole denominations have been founded because they mistook a leading of the Holy Spirit to be a hard-set rule. For example, a century or so ago someone saw in the Word that preachers went two-by-two and didn't preach in buildings. Instead of understanding that that was a helpful, Spirit-led strategy at the time, he applied it as an unalterable rule: that all preachers should travel two-by-two, and the church should never own real estate. The group now has thousands of followers all around the world, because their preachers did get out and evangelize - but they are in bondage because there's nothing wrong with owning real estate and there's nothing wrong with a preacher traveling alone or in a larger group than two. Something that Jesus was led by the Spirit to do on one occasion was turned into bondage by them. Jesus never meant all evangelistic teams always had to consist of exactly two people (Jesus Himself often had a larger team; so did Paul - and sometimes they both ministered alone).

The Welsh revival of 1904 is another example. It was started because someone learned to be led by the Holy Spirit. Every effort was made to allow the Spirit to lead the meetings. There was great freedom. Consequently God manifested greatly. But then the leader of the revival began to feel stressed about following the Spirit exactly - so stressed that he had to take a break from the ministry and never again returned to the ministry. A revelation about the leading of the Holy Spirit produced perhaps the greatest revival the world has ever seen - but becoming stressed about the leading of the Holy Spirit hindered a great revivalists' emotional health and ministry.

So the key is to remember that the purpose of the Holy Spirit's leading is not to give us a new type of stringency, but to free us from stringency in order to experience greater blessing. We don't have to let something that was intended for our freedom make us more miserable than we were before!

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty!
He is not a spirit of bondage and fear. He is the Spirit of power, love and of a sound mind.

If you find yourself becoming stressed, confused, fearful, judgmental, stringent - then give yourself a break and remind yourself that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of freedom, power, love and of a sound mind.

We are not justified by following external instructions - even if we feel the instructions are coming from the Holy Spirit. We are already justified freely by His grace. We don't lose our sonship entirely just because we feel we've missed a prompting of the Holy Spirit. Instead, the Holy Spirit is given to us to enhance our happiness. He helps us express the fullness of the blessing which we already have in us. He is given to confirm that we are already justified. He is not a new set of rules. He is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost! He leads us in order to help us enjoy the freedom already purchased for us. Enjoy!

Fret Not

David wrote: "For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: NO GOOD THING WILL HE WITHHOLD from them that walk uprightly."

Since the Lord withholds no good thing from them that walk uprightly, then if something has been withheld from an upright person, then it wasn't good - or the timing wasn't good.

Either way, it's a win for the upright! So don't fret. Just keep doing right.

Guidance in your spirit

"Sometimes your head is telling you to use common sense but your heart is telling you to go with what you feel. After everything I've been through, I've came to define love as when your head & your heart agree, when everything inside you is screaming, this is right..." - Pagtalunan Evelyn Gambol.

I think the above quote seeks to describe the feeling a person has when they don't have an assurance in their spirit about a certain decision, and it seeks to describe the feeling a person has when he does have an assurance in his spirit about something.

I would probably use different terminology, and perhaps I'd divide between mind and heart a little differently - but the conclusion would probably be the same.

The quote says that unless our mind and heart are in unquestioned agreement, it's a 'no'. That can be true. But there are times when we have to make a decision before our mind has a chance to catch up and get into agreement with our heart. The only way we can do that is to have a submitted mind, and to acknowledge that God leads through our heart - through our spirit - not through our mind.

But that's only true when we distinguish between heart and emotions. Your heart is your spirit, not your physical emotions. Man is a spirit, he has a soul and he lives in a body. The Holy Spirit lives in our spirit. Therefore God will guide you through your spirit, or heart - not through your physical mind or emotions.

If it is our emotions that are conflicting with our mind, then neither of them alone are good guides. But if it is truly our heart (our spirit) that is not at rest about a decision, then it pays to take heed to our heart. If what's really happening is that our spirit (our heart) is unassured, then we should pay attention to it. When our spirit (our heart) hesitates, it should be taken as a 'no' - at least for now.

But when our heart (our spirit) assures us - even though our mind and emotions may protest and may not want to submit - we can go ahead confidently. Perhaps this is the scenario that the above quote was seeking to describe.

In the Right Track

"When my spirit is dancing, I know that I'm in the right track" - Dianne David

God's Will in Paul's Journey to Jerusalem

Was it or was it not God's will for Paul to go up to Jerusalem?

Paul said, "And now I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem." 

I take that to mean that Paul felt he had no choice - it was God's will.

Paul said he didn't know what would happen to him there. Everywhere he went, however, the Holy Spirit was indicating that he was headed for some troubles.

He was in a hurry, hoping to be there for Pentecost. But on the way, he was told through the Holy Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem.

I take this to mean that Paul was to delay his journey. He did end-up staying somewhere for "many days" after this prophecy.

But Paul still felt constrained to go to Jerusalem eventually. Finally it was indicated by a prophet that the Jews in Jerusalem would tie Paul up when he goes there. This time there was no instruction that he should not go - he was told only what would happen when he arrives there.

When Paul's acquaintances heard this, they tried to persuade him not to go up to Jerualem, but Paul wouldn't be moved. He was ready. So his colleagues ceased, saying, "The will of the Lord be done". They had attempted to dissuade him not because it wasn't God's will that he go, but out of concern, knowing what would happen to him once he arrived. So they packed up their things and went to Jerusalem with him.

So apparently although God had His proper timing, it was after all God's will for Paul to go to Jerusalem despite what would befall him there.

That is the manner in which my friend Jolon understood the will of God in the matter of the two prophecies about Paul's journey to Jerusalem.