I wrote in an
earlier blog about two reasons why we need to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Effective
evangelism starts with the Holy Spirit. Effective Bible study starts with the
Holy Spirit. A third reason we need to be guided by the Holy Spirit is because
our own reasoning is faulty. Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in the
mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.” In Acts 8,
Philip had a powerful ministry in Samaria. It made no sense for him to leave
that ministry and go out to the desert, yet that is where God led him. The
Spirit directed him to speak to an Ethiopian who was riding in a chariot.
Through that encounter the gospel spread to Africa. We can only see so much. As
a result, our plans are often faulty. God’s plans are so much better.
In Acts 16 the
Apostle Paul had a plan for ministry. He took Timothy with him and headed for
Phrygia and Galatia, but God had other plans. Acts 16:6 says that the Holy
Spirit forbade Paul from preaching in Asia. That made no sense. Paul’s most effective
work had been done in western Asia. Phrygia and Galatia made perfect sense. But
God had other plans. Through a dream, Paul was called to take the gospel
further west, to Europe. The gospel spread beyond Asia to both Africa and
Europe by the leading of the Holy Spirit. When listening to the Holy Spirit we
find ourselves in ministries and opportunities that would never have occurred to
us.
We need to be
guided by Holy Spirit because effective evangelism and effective Bible study
start with the Holy Spirit. Effective ministry is directed by the Holy Spirit. Too
often our plans are made by reasoning together, strategizing and planning based
on our knowledge and information. But God knows better. He knows the future
from the past. He knows the needs that we do not see. He opens doors that we
don’t even know exist. He changes hearts that we cannot change. In all of our
reasoning, strategizing, and planning, we need to learn to listen.
Reason, strategy,
and planning are not bad things. God gave us reason. It is part of what it
means to be created in the image of God. God himself is a planner. The whole
redemption story that plays out in the Bible and is still playing out in the
world today was planned by God before the foundation of the world. The crucifixion
itself was part of God’s plan from the beginning (1 Pet 1:20). God has a plan. As
those created in his image reason, strategy, and planning are a significant
part of being created in his image.
Planning is not
wrong, but we need to learn to hold our plans loosely and listen to the leading
and direction of the Spirit. James wrote in James 4:13-16,
[13] Come now, you who say, “Today
or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and
trade and make a profit”— [14] yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then
vanishes. [15] Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and
do this or that.” [16] As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting
is evil.
We need to learn to hold our plans loosely because God may have better
plans. What if we made listening part of our strategic planning? What if we sought
the Lord’s guidance with more than a cursory prayer at the beginning of a
meeting? What if we learned to test what we think we hear from God against what
others are hearing? It is fascinating to me that after the Jerusalem council in
Acts 15, where the church leaders gathered to discuss the first theological crisis
of the early church, their conclusion was, “It has seemed good to the Holy
Spirit and to us . . .” (Act 16:28).
We need to be
guided by Holy Spirit because effective evangelism, effective Bible study, and
effective ministry are all dependent on the Holy Spirit. May we learn to listen
better. May we repent of our arrogant self-sufficiency. May we hold our plans
loosely. If we learn these things we just might be amazed at what God does.
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