Being Led of the Spirit

In his letter to the believers in Galatia, Paul writes, "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law" (5:16-18, KJV). Isn't it interesting that he used the world "walk"? This tells us the Christian life is a journey, and to walk in the Spirit is to walk as guided by the Spirit. In other words, to live under His influence and not resist Him and in doing so, "ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." So far, so good.

However, as we are guided by the Spirit along our journey, what happens when He is leading us somewhere we would rather not go? Or to take it one step further, somewhere we definitely do not want to go? Because He is the one leading and because He only works in accordance with what is in the will of God, a part of trusting Him means trusting that wherever He leads is all a part of God's plan for our lives. That can get tricky because He sees and knows far more than we do. For the most part we have a fear of the unknown; we want to see and know where we are going and why. These thoughts came to mind as I reflected on the opening verse of Matthew 4, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil," and I thought, "To be what????" For sure, the Spirit must have taken a wrong turn somewhere! To compound matters, this was not a quick trip through the wilderness but rather a forty-days and forty-nights (v.2) assault on the mind, the emotions and the will during a time of fasting and according to Mark 1:13, while surrounded by wild beasts. It is no wonder that when the devil left Him, "angels came and ministered unto Him" (Matthew 4:11).

On the outside looking in, all of this makes very little, if any, sense. Yet it wasn't that the Spirit did not know what He was doing; it wasn't that He had lost His way. His leading Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil was all a part of God's plan for "the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:11). It follows that as we are led by the Spirit we too may be led to places and into situations that seem strange. For those of us who are methodical in whatever we do and those of us who like to be in control, this is rather scary. Yet we can rest assured that the Holy Spirit will never lead us into situations contrary to the Word of God and that are not in keeping with the will of God for our lives. Yes, those valley experiences are included as well. The challenge is not to resist Him though everything in our flesh will want to do that.

Where is He leading you? What is He asking you to do? What is your response?