How Does the Holy Spirit Lead Us?

In the previous blog entries I have attempted to understand how the Holy Spirit leads us. This brings me to a place in my understanding which seems to differ somewhat from the way in which the institutional church presents it. In this blog entry I will attempt to delve further into this important topic.

The I.C.s Perspective on Being Led

I cannot help but feel that where the church often misses it in this area is that it interweaves truth about the subject with the typical demand for performance. This demand for performance in the form of principles just brings us back to Old Testament rule-keeping. This harkening back to the law is merely an attempt to overcome inner dysfunction with something that the believer should do. I am convinced that a proper perspective on grace should be sufficient to deal with this dysfunction, thereby allowing the believer to be led, guided, motivated and prompted by the Holy Spirit.

Just Go With Peace

A friend of mine on Facebook who is mature in the grace message and whom I respect very much often says that we should just go with peace. This concept gets us away from the typical focus on principles and formulas, providing a simply way of responding the leading of the Holy Spirit. There are indeed many times when the Holy Spirit gives us a profound sense of peace in relation to something and we can just submit to that and act as necessary.

But I find that there are also times when that peace is not in such abundant supply. There have been moments in my life when I have not felt such a sense of peace about something; in fact, I have felt unsure about it and even a tinge of fear. Nevertheless, in such circumstances I have committed to a course of action that has been right for me at that time.

Do It…Afraid

I suppose this supports some of the teaching of people like Joyce Meyer who uses clichés such as, “Do it…afraid”. I’ll admit that I couldn’t stand Joyce’s preaching on this subject because I felt like I was being provoked and intimidated to do some typical church thing that I did not want to do. Susan Jeffers wrote a popular secular self-help book entitled, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. This was meant to inspire shy and apprehensive people into living their dreams – but I wonder to myself if this message really has the intended effect. Perhaps the fear that a person experiences in response to the intention of committing to a certain course of action, means that the person is not meant to do that thing? Fear is the opposite of love. The Bible tells us that he who fears has not been made perfect in love. But even those who have been made perfect in love will experience fear or apprehension at least, in response to a situation that is not in accordance with God’s will for their life. Therefore, there is a healthy application of fear. God shines His light along our path – if we stray from the path and experience darkness – that darkness is not God’s doing. We experience the darkness in our life, the fear, when we stray from God’s will for our life.

I cannot help but feel that there is something amiss about this “do it afraid” approach, because it can cause insecure people to look at their life, compare themselves with other people and then resolve to make themselves all sorts of things that they assume they “must” or “should” be or do. But a lot of these “musts” and “should” arise as a result of the expectations that are imposed upon us by society, particularly our peers. There is the supposed need to be exciting, slim, attractive, and adventurous and extravert. But these imposed social norms are often at odds with our personality and who God created us to be. God created people to be introverts and some to be extraverts, the two work hand-in-hand. Yes, I agree that introversion can be an aspect of a lack of confidence – but there are secure minded people out there who simply keep to a low-key approach when interacting with others.

Get In Tune with Your Own Heart

I think there is a need to depart from the need to perform the typical routines and duties that the institutional church foists upon its members. There is a need to get in tune with your own heart, without the need for spiritual motivators such as Joyce Meyer and church pastors. I love listening to The God Journey podcasts: Wayne Jacobsen often repeats his beliefs that we should just love the people around us and do what is on our hearts to do.

This is a radically different approach to following principles and aligning yourself with the corporate vision of your pastor. Such corporate visions include building sufficient funds to purchase a new building for the youth or getting a hundred more people making a first time commitment to Jesus in the church. Goals such as these sound noble and Biblical, but they are often a million miles away from the individual destiny and purpose that God has planted in each and every one of us.

Sure, we can play our part in the role of the church, but we often miss the fact that we are the church! This earthly vessel we live in and the other people we interact with on a daily basis should be our primary focus. But we often downplay the importance of those little, everyday events and the people we meet: we dismiss as unimportant, when we chat to someone at the bus-stop, hairdressers or whatever – this is where real community, and real-life, is to be found.

Somehow have been persuaded to believe that the vision of a pastor is more important. Oftentimes, the vision of the pastor is nothing more than religious games and a massive ego trip – not all the time, mind you. I think God’s purpose for our lives looks a lot more like normal life than we could ever begin to imagine. I like what Brad Cummings said once on The God Journey podcast: he said something along the lines of miracles being all-well-and-good – but how is that anything more amazing than the wonderful things of life that we often take for granted? By this he was talking about a couple having their first child, or someone meeting a friend they haven’t seen for a while.