Thursday, June 18, 2009

Acts 16 -- Life In The Spirit

As one might guess Paul was a man deeply connected to the Spirit of God. Not only connected and knowledgeable, Paul lived his live through and by the lead of the Holy Spirit. In this chapter of Acts we find the Spirit directing his very steps. Paul wants to go one place and the Spirit won't let him. So Paul yields to the spirit.

So what are the results of Paul yielding? Read on in the chapter and Paul is in jail. Wait a cotton picking minute. Paul does what he should by yielding to the Spirit and his reward is jail? Even there Paul is at God's work sharing the Gospel of Jesus. While most of us would be complaining about where we were after following God, Paul is busy saving souls.

Often we confuse life in the Spirit with life being easy. There is a dangerous tendency to think as long as we are following God things will be jut fine. Likewise we think if we are experiencing hard times, that we are not living by the Spirit of God. I find when I am living in the Spirit, more often than not life becomes a little more difficult. The true measure of living in the Spirit is not speaking in tongues, it is not having favor with everyone, it is not having everything go smooth. The true measure is found following God first in all circumstances, presenting Jesus Christ.

1 comment:

  1. Paul had guts...Timothy and Silas as well. I look back on my journey and think about how things used to be, just being in my comfort zone, just being. Never ever thought I'd be stepping out of that...although I'm not there as I should be, but farther than I've ever been before, for me, that is. I don't actually know if I could do what they did at the time, although I find myself feeling that I think I could, trusting in Him. I know that Obedience to God means giving up what makes us feel secure. It's hard to do sometimes. All what they went through began with a demon that was commanded out of a woman, in the name of Jesus. That took guts, too. They certainly suffered for that. But in the end many were saved and the magistrates wore egg on their faces so to speak. And on to the next!

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