Written by Mark Driskill:
Read Mark 1:12-13
Today I will discuss being “Spirit led.” We all want to be Spirit led, don’t we? Our Christian culture passes that phrase around a lot. We have Spirit led churches with cool dove logos on the sign out front. We have Spirit led music, Spirit led bibles (as opposed to what?), Spirit led cruises with all you can eat buffets, and even Spirit led dating services. Wow! However, I fear that in all this talk of spirit-led stuff we may have forgotten what it really means. In some cases we may have begun to be led by a different spirit. In our overeating, overspending, and under serving Christian culture do we even have any idea of what it means to be led by the Holy Spirit as Jesus was?
One of the keys to following Jesus is a willingness to walk in step with the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ life was characterized by this. He only did what he saw his father doing (John 5:19) and said the words given to him (John 12:49). He made it clear to Nicodemus that those who are born again live by the leading of the Holy Spirit (John 3:8). As believers we understand that we must allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into God’s will daily. But what happens when the Holy Spirit leads us into the wilderness filled with devils and wild animals? Do we still want to be Spirit-led? Or is it only when He leads us to buy a new car?
It’s interesting that after Jesus’ baptism the Spirit leads him immediately into a place of testing and difficulty. “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” There he spent forty grueling days and nights. There he was forced to face two enemies we all must face. He had to face the devil and he had to face himself. If he had lost this crucial battle the rest of his ministry would have been crippled. Thankfully he won over both the temptations of Satan and the tyranny of the self. When was the last time you heard a “Spirit-filled” mega church guru challenge you to do that?
It’s a good thing Jesus was not brought up in many of our 21rst century churches in the west. If he had been he may have skipped the desert and gone to the beach instead. In our day we have this idea that the Holy Spirit only wants to lead us into comfortable and safe places. We love to follow the Spirit to concerts and conferences where we can receive a holy massage from an entertaining speaker and buy lots of spiritual books and music to clutter our shelves with. But the moment many of us find ourselves facing anything that threatens our plastic Garden of Eden we tell ourselves this can’t be of God. We ask God to use us so he lands us in a job filled with mean spirited, ungodly co workers. We suffer through each day like refugees in a foreign land and cry to God at night, “How could you put me here! I want to be in your will!” meaning “I want to be
in a nice Christian environment with lots of praise music and spiritually cool friends who all go to cool churches and eat lunch together at cool Christian restaurants every day where we can laugh and talk about our nice Christian lives.
You see, we all want to be in God’s will as long as we don’t have to come face to face with the devil or with ourselves. You see, in the office full of “meanies” we come to terms with who we are and how much we need God. We battle temptation and trial so as to become more like Jesus. It is there in the desert place we truly begin to be Spirit led. Unfortunately, all too often we bail out and look for a nice Christian bubble to hide in. We want a safe place where we can be saved from trial, saved from temptation, saved from God. We forget that Jesus said, “If anyone serves me he must follow me; and where I am, there my servant will be also…” (John 12:26).
The Biblical pattern for following the Spirit is quite different from what most of us have been taught. Today we need to rethink our idea of what it means to be Spirit led. When you commit yourself to following the Lord, be prepared for times of desert duty. Get ready to face the devil head on and to face yourself. This is the first stop in the journey of the Spirit. Self must be crucified and Satan must be defeated before we can go on with the Spirit. The cruise will just have to wait.
Challenge: Look around your community for a desert place. It may be a neighborhood or a workplace that appears to be spiritually needy. Adopt that place as a weekly place of prayer. Begin to pray over that place asking God to show you what he wants to do there. You may invite someone to do weekly prayer walks with you. What might God want you to do there?
Mark Driskill and his wife Mary are homeschooling community ministers in Breathitt County Kentucky. They have four children. They co pastor Emmanuel fellowship Church, serve as Camp Pastors at Bethel Mennonite Camp, and Mark Teaches at Oakdale Christian Academy. Mark is web minister for Begotten by the Word , a ministry of Helping Hands Christian Resources. Once a month he preaches on the local radio station through the “Lion of Judah” program.
Mark also preaches in youth rallies and revivals upon request at no charge. Their vision is to see true spiritual awakening come to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and to the nation.
Contact information:
Email: driskill@hilbillymail.com
Facebook: Mark Driskill
Address: PO Box 1159 Jackson KY.
