A Challenging Read
I stumbled on this blog post by a friend of mine. It’s about the idea of being “open-but-cautious” to the Holy Spirit.
http://jamesheth.blogspot.com/2011/04/open-but-cautious.html
Favorite quote:
If you were to meet a stranger on the street – and they were to say “I’m open but cautious about Jesus.” What are the thoughts that jump into your mind? What are the conclusions you could make about their “relationship” with Jesus?
As someone who’s trying to become more like Jesus in my being and in my doing, I’m challenged by this. Part of living like Jesus is learning to “say what the Father is saying” and “do what the Father is doing.” That’s how he said he lived all the time. I find this call to in-the-moment obedience – to living life “2 steps behind the breath of God” – EVERYWHERE right now both for myself and many of those around me. I’ve certainly used the attitude of being open-but-cautious as a shield against childlike obedience to His voice. What do you think?
Tags: discipleship, holy spirit, obedience
I think you have to be attentive enough to God to know how He speaks into your life. It is different for everyone. I think the way He speaks into our life can be validated by being consistent with the Word of God, however; there’s plenty of flexibility within that “validation definition”. The trick is being disciplined in our walk to consistently talk with Him and dig into the Word. He will then reveal Himself to us. Once we get a feel for it, there’s no reason for caution. The problem is, many of us don’t invest enough “Face time” with Christ to discern what His communication to us looks like in our individual lives.