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Guidance chapter seven
“.... and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
II Corinthian's 3:17
One of the strongest detriments to our abandoning ourselves to
Jesus Christ is the fear that if we do our world will narrow. So many people who claim to have sold out to Jesus seem to have
entered a restricted world. They seem to be walking around with blinders on their eyes, out of touch with both the joys and the
pain of the rest of humanity. We look back over our own lives to periods when we honestly thought we were deepening our commitment
to the Lord Jesus. And yet, we became rigid, self-righteous, narrow-minded, critical of others. What we sincerely hoped would be a
deeper spiritual life turned out to be a spiritual rut, a Christian Phariseeism. Some of us have been burned so many times by this
neurotic pseudo-discipleship, this treadmill Christianity in which we drove ourselves half out of our minds, (to say nothing of
what we did to the people around us), that whenever someone pleads with us to "surrender all" to “sell out to
Jesus" we
"Look man, I've tried that,
Ianded up half-weird! It took me years to regain some sanity. I'm not about to get on that treadmill again!"
But were these trips we took into religious legalism inspired
by the Spirit of Jesus Christ? Can we honestly blame our self-centered spirituality on Jesus? Is there anything in Jesus' teaching
or example that even remotely resembles the spiritual rut we traveled?
“.... where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is freedom.
If we ended up in bondage it was not the Spirit of the Lord
who took us there.
If you
continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
John
8:31-32
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed..." Luke 4:18
"I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find
pasture…”
John 10:9
Jesus came and died and rose to set the captives free. Until
you meet Jesus your life is a room that has no door. When you meet Jesus he is the door and you can move in and out.
Of course there has always been, and until the return of the
Messiah there will always be, plenty of "guidance" that will promise you freedom and bring you into bondage.
"Eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil and you shall be as gods!"
"Worship the golden calf and
you shall have pleasure!"
"Bow down before me and I will
give you all the kingdoms of the world!”
There are subtle forms of "guidance”, which claim to
come from Christ himself. They will look quite “spiritual" and will promise “spiritual blessings." But the proof
that they are false is that they destroy the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus and bring us into bondage. The Spirit of the
Lord Jesus always brings us into freedom.
“…and where the Spirit of the
Lord is, there is freedom.”
The
Spirit of the Lord sets you free from yourself.
Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house forever; the son continues forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." John 8:34-36
Until we're set free from ourselves we're slaves to sin, we
can't seem to do anything but go on sinning.
"For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do ...”
“0 wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"
Romans 7:19, 24
The first thing we experience as we come to know Jesus is
freedom from this bondage to self. You wake up one day after meeting the Lord and discover that for the first time the chain
that has been wrapped around your life is gone. If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. But there's more to it…
The
Spirit of the Lord sets us free from the inner principle of death.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. Hebrews 2:14-15
Just as surely as the law of gravity operates to hold us to
the surface of this planet, so the law of death operates to hold us in continuous bondage to sin. Every cell in your body knows
that it's going to die. Your eyes know that one day they will no longer see light and your ears know that one day they will no
longer hear music. And this death-dread keeps us sinning the root sin of all sins: Unbelief, unwillingness to trust our good God.
Until Jesus sets us free. Takes the condemnation away. Removes the fear of death and teaches us to trust God.
The
Spirit of the Lord sets us free from the tyranny of man – particularly religious man.
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1
How much of our lives we have wasted, how much of our strength
we have spent trying to prove ourselves to people who somehow managed to keep us on the defensive -- make us feel guilty.
"Am I really doing this thing
to please God or am I doing it because I know that if I don't somebody's going to be on my back?"
When I come into Christ I leave that religious bondage behind.
I'm living to please Jesus not to impress Brother So-and-So, or keep Sister So-and-So quiet. For freedom Christ has set us free;
stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
The
Spirit of the Lord sets us free from slavery to a distorted view of God.
“
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into
fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship.
Romans 8:15
If Satan can't get you to ignore God he'll get you to crush
yourself under a false view of what God is like ... a God who is always angry, always picking, always looking for an excuse to
condemn you. Every time it thunders a voice whispers, "Now you're going to get it!" Often we carry these sick fears
right along with us into the Kingdom, transmit them to our children, infect our brothers and sisters with them ... until we bring
these fears to the Lord himself and he shows how needless they are, how good God is, how kind, how eager to hear our prayers and
help us in every way.
The
Spirit of the Lord sets us free from the bondage of decay.
... because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. Romans 8:21
Our bodies age, our cities decay, civilizations crumble. There
is a tendency for believers, after a while, to become stale. The man who was once a burning light in the Kingdom is now still
mouthing the words, but his life is all flab, the freshness is gone.
This need not be. If Jesus is our source and we truly drink from the spring of his Spirit, our minds are continuously
renewed. Our vision remains fresh. While our outer man is wasting away our inner man is renewed day by day.
…they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
The
Spirit of the Lord sets us free to enter into a life of praise.
0 that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! Psalm 107
That's what the angels are doing day and night. And those who
abandon their hearts to Jesus are lifted into a life of praise like the early saints who were continually in the Temple blessing
God, breaking bread in their homes, partaking of food with glad and generous hearts. The only reason why men don't praise God for
his goodness and his wonderful works to the children of men is because they're bound…
Praise is the most natural thing in the world to the soul that
is set free in the Spirit of God.
“I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
Psalm 34:1
The Spirit of the Lord sets us free to do the will of God
...
to show the same mercy to those around us that God has
shown us.
Be
merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned;
forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken
Luke
6:36-38
Now we can do these things. By the blood of the Lamb we have
been set free to Iive God's mercy. To be led by the Spirit is to be led into freedom. Wherever we are in our walk the Spirit calls
each of us to take a step into a freedom beyond what we now have toward the glorious freedom of the children of God. Throw off
that fear, that cloud, that compulsion. Get out of that rut. Don't let Satan tell you you can't, my friend. You can! For the
Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
.... and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Guidance chapter eight
DON’T PANIC
"I
have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the
truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things that
are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has
John
16:12-15
His
Promise
If there's any promise Jesus made which is indisputably
intended for all his followers, it's the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will come to you and you will know he has
come. You won't be standing around wringing your hands wondering, "Did he or didn't he?" The Holy Spirit will accomplish
definite things in our lives. Notice what they are. Jesus did not promise warm feelings or cold chills when the Spirit comes even
though such things may happen. (Then again they may not.) Jesus did promise that the Spirit would guide us, speak to us, teach us,
remind us, fill us direct with the life of God so we can get the job done.
Jesus did promise that any time we feel inadequate for the
needs that come pressing in all we have to do is lift up our hearts to the Father and ask and he will pour out his Spirit upon us.
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! Luke 11:13
And when the Holy Spirit is resting upon us we will have more
than enough of God's life to give to those who come to us.
Jesus did promise that he would go right on talking to us from
the Father's throne and that the Holy Spirit would make us to know clearly what the Lord has to say.
"He will take what is mine (my word) and declare it to you."
To be so led by the Spirit is the normal condition of every
child of God.
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
Romans 8:14
And when we are so led by the Spirit we work in harmony and
unspeakable joy in the midst of our trials.
Our
Experience
But while all this was promised to us can we honestly say that
this is what we’re experiencing? Many of us are inclined to sigh and shake our heads, "There was a time when I really
expected that life to become mine. In fact, I tasted it. But I learned the hard way that it just isn't that simple."
Somewhere along the line our hopes were dashed. The pattern for some of us was like this: One day our eyes open to the amazing
discovery that the Spirit of God has come -- is guiding us. We're thrilled to learn that the apostles weren't exaggerating! They
weren't some special breed! This thing is still going on and we're part of it! We're cruising along in this new Spirit-directed
life, enjoying a new attitude, a fresh vision of Jesus, until one day a particularly strong challenge comes our way. We cry out
for guidance but nothing seems to happen. We wait and wait for an answer. Nothing. There is a knock on the door, a man hands us a
book and says, "Read this," and disappears. We sit down and read. "Why this speaks exactly to my need! This must be
the answer to my prayers!" In the book we are told to get up and do something daring for a change. "Look at Hudson
Taylor! C.T. Studd! Corrie Ten Boom! Elizabeth Elliot!" And now some act of daring comes into mind. But even as we consider
it the light seems to dim. "Never mind," says a voice, "This is the path, take it!” So we do. Before long we're
sitting on the floor of
But did God let me down? Does the fact that I'm sitting at the
bottom of this quarry, mired in error, mean that the Spirit failed to guide me? Not at all. The erroneous paths we take, the false
experiences we have, these excursions into the weird, occur not because we're overly zealous for God, as we suppose, but because
we doubt God and start jumping at straws. If Jesus says the Spirit will guide us then we can be sure that the Spirit will
guide us. But when the guidance doesn't come as soon as we think it should, or in the way we think it should, when the light isn't
as bright as we think it should be, or the interval of silence seems unbearable, we panic -- we doubt. We take our eyes off Jesus
and open ourselves to whatever lying spirit happens to be drifting through town. So when there's a knock on the on the door and
this stranger gives us a book and commands us to read it we think it's an angel. We're in such a hurry for guidance we fail to
perceive where it's coming from.
Experience
the Promise
If you ask your Father for bread he won't give you a stone.
And if you ask him for fish he won't give you a scorpion. But if you turn your heart to the side in unbelief, if you get tired of
giving God thanks for his goodness to you, then when someone comes to the door with a stone and calls it bread you may be foolish
enough to bite into it.
When the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
That's a promise to each of us even as he gave it to the
eleven in the upper room. Just as surely as Jesus feeds us with the body and blood, he gives us the Spirit of Truth to guide us
into all truth, to lead us into the very heart of God. The Holy Spirit comes to us today to do in our lives all the things Jesus
promised he would do if we will trust him, if we will let not our hearts be troubled nor let them be afraid.
In other words, believe that the Holy Spirit will guide you.
Don't panic and try to force the situation. If there's a time of silence, let there be silence. Don't corrupt God's silence with
your own talk and speculation. If it thunders let it thunder. Don't immediately try to decode it into a divine message. If
someone knocks on your door and breathlessly urges you to hurry into the desert for a rendezvous with the Lord, don't go!
When the Spirit is ready to move you one step beyond the place where you now are you'll know. Meanwhile, live in God's mercy
right where you are with your heart fixed on the Lord.
The Spirit will guide us without any help from us. All we have
to do is trust. Don't panic. Don't try to force the situation. Don't sink into a depression. Trust. Believe. And this promise will
be fulfilled day after day in your life.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
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