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 is mine; therefore I said that he
will take what is mine and declare it to you."
John 16:12-15
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.
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 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.
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.
"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
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 know clearly what the Lord has to say.
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.
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's 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 prayer!" 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 an abandoned quarry, surrounded by snakes, howling wolves, confusion, and despair.
"God knows I wanted to be led by the Spirit. God knows I was sincere. Then how did I end up in a place like this? Is this what happens to people who desire to be led by the Spirit?
Jesus promised that the Spirit would guide me into all truth, truth that would set me free. Yet here I sit paralyzed by confusion – undone!"
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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."