Bruce Collins, Evangelist

The personal website of Bruce Collins

Guidance of the Holy Spirit

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (Romans 8:14 NKJV)

Our Guide

Today most of us drive using GPS navigation.  When the little voice in our phone says go left, we do our best to go left.  When it says go right, we try to go right.  So far, mine has never said, “Go up.”  I don’t think I would be able to do that in my car.  But sometimes I think I know better than the little voice in my phone, and I don’t obey the commands of my GPS navigation system.  When I think I know better than my navigation system, I usually get into trouble.

God has given those of us who are saved a navigation system.  It is the Holy Spirit.  However, the Holy Spirit always guides us according to the will of God as found in the Bible.  The Word of God and the Holy Spirit always work together, and they are always in agreement.  For example, Paul tells us that one of the tools we have in our spiritual battles with wicked spirits is the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God.  See Ephesians 6:17. 

The Work of the Spirit

We know that there would be no personal salvation apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.  John 3 says that we must be born of the Spirit.  See John 3:8. The Spirit of God convicts us of our sin and enlightens us to the Truth that Christ died for our sin.  The Holy Spirit does that through the written Word of God and the preached Word of God.  Once we are saved, Paul says we are “sealed” by the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 1:13. 

Question?

Do any of us really understand what it means to submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit in our personal lives and in our church gatherings? In or personal lives we are supposed to have our five-year plans and our plans for retirement.  Have we brought the guidance of the Holy Spirit into those plans? 

In our congregational gatherings, have we so organized our meetings that the Holy Spirit is left on the outside looking in?  As I understand 1 Corinthians 14, prophets or those who speak for God, are to give a brother who has something revealed to him the opportunity to share it.  He is to be subject to the other prophets, so his message must be Spirit led and profitable.  Would we have churches anywhere of any kind that would have enough confidence in the Holy Spirit to give place to one who said that the Lord had laid a burden on his heart and he wanted to share it?  If the risen Lord saw fit to grace our meetings with His actual physical presence, would He have to get on our “schedule” before He could speak?  And if we followed the Scriptural pattern, would the prophets be honest with one who was usurping the place of a teacher without any real message for the people? 

In our personal lives, we often want to have teaching on knowing the will of the Lord in our lives.  But we are not going to be open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit if we have grieved him by the things we do and say.  Because of our lack of faith in the work of the Holy Spirit, we often quench His ability to operate freely in our personal lives and in our congregations. Quenching the spirit just simply means that don’t allow him the freedom to shine His light on our paths and problems.  We don’t trust Him to guide us.  We don’t listen when He says, “Go left or Go right.”

Why Are We Weak Today?

Most churches that seem to be fundamental when it comes to God’s Way of Salvation and who seem to desire the blessing of God on their worship and teaching, would have to admit that they are having a hard time surviving.  I would like to suggest that we get back to holding prayer meetings where the congregation comes together; and, in prayer, seeks the guidance of the Holy Spirit in their activities.  It is one thing to arrange and make plans, but it is thrilling when the Lord overrules and rearranges. Sometimes, He has plans that weren’t on our radar.  Paul had that happen to him in Acts 16; and, as a result, the Gospel went West to Greece instead of East to Asia, and we are the beneficiaries of that today.

Those of us who are saved had to quit telling God how to save us before we came to faith in Christ and in Him alone for salvation.  We had to let God do His work His way.  We need to keep learning that lesson over and over.  When we arrange, we need to let God rearrange as He sees fit.  We have had that happen recently in our personal lives at home, and it is thrilling to see the guidance of God as he rearranged what we had planned. 

Bruce Collins

Meditation for the week of September 8, 2010

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