Power of Leading Or Being Led

Key Scripture:  “I advise you to obey only the Holy Spirit’s instructions.” Galatians 5, NLT.

Power Point:

My grandson, JD, has a t-shirt that says:  “Lead or be led”. What a great truth. Sometimes we think we can be passive about the choices we make. We can let ourselves simply flow along in life without taking a stand on things. The real truth is that if you don’t make a decision to be led by the Spirit then your flesh will lead you. That’s why God advises us so often to be led by Him in order to lead an abundant life. The result of being led by the flesh is not attractive. We all know how that will turn out! Paul’s letters make it quite clear what that will look like. Some of the negatives of being led by your own flesh are hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, a constant effort to get the best for yourself; complaints and criticisms, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group. To name a few. When you make the choice to be led by Holy Spirit it’s obvious that things will look a bit different. When He’s leading the way you can expect to find, the peaceful fruit of righteousness in your life. It looks like this: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

Beloved, it’s always our choice. Our “chooser” gets to choose whose lead to follow. If you don’t make the effort to follow the right one, you won’t end up where you need to be, in the right place and with the life He’s lovingly prepared for you. When He said He was sending the Holy Spirit to “help” us, those are some of the things He came to help us with. If you find yourself passively allowing your flesh to lead then you will find yourself falling short of real life. Being controlled by the flesh is the “pits” and it keeps you in the pits. God knows that! That is why He offers to help you. You get to choose life or death or strife or peace and then you get to see the results of those choices in your life. If you don’t make the effort to choose you are still making a passive choice to be led. Make no mistake-if you don’t lead, you will be led.

Are there situations in your life where your own flesh has led you because you’ve refused to follow the Holy Spirit’s instructions?  Have you mistakenly believed that if you don’t do something about your situation it will eventually be okay even though the Holy Spirit has told you differently? Sorry. It just doesn’t work that way. As Jesus is, so are we to be in this world. He chose to bring change for the better wherever He went.  We should too.

What you choose makes a definite difference, Beloved. Lead in the power of the Holy Spirit or something or someone else will lead you.

Power Thought:

The Holy Spirit leads the best leaders.