• Led By The Holy Spirit

    By: Kristen L. McNulty

    Reprint rights available on request. Email the author at kristenmcnulty@hotmail.com.

    Last weekend I was watching the Nicholas Cage movie next and a scene really stood out to me. In the movie, Cage's character has the ability to see two minutes into the future. Since he knows what's about to come, he can change his actions in such a way that he's guaranteed to have the outcome he wants. After trying to hide this gift, Cage's character finally decides to use his gift to help the FBI, who were desperately trying to track down criminals and stop them from setting off a bomb. Which led to the scene that struck a chord with me. In it, Cage was with the FBI, closing in on the bad guys who had ambushes set up to try and stop the them. But since Cage was able to see his future, as long as the FBI agents stayed close to him and listened very closely to his instructions, they were able to navigate safely through this maze of hazards and get to where they needed to be.

    A Guide Through Life


    I think the reason this scene stuck with me is because I realized that we as Christians don't need to follow someone with Cage's version of clairvoyance. While we don't know the future, God doesn't leave us as believers alone to navigate through this life and try to figure out where it is He wants us to go. He's already equipped us with our own guide through life, who shows us the way and helps us to follow Jesus where He wants to lead us. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians:

    "Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?" 1 Cor. 3:16


    While the Holy Spirit isn't a fortune teller, He is the Spirit of God living in us., allowing us to reject the sinful nature that steered the ship in our life since we were born and instead listen and follow God's way.

    "But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all)." Romans 8:9


    Listening and Following


    Part of growing in our faith is learning to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in us and choosing to follow where He leads, every step of the way. And He does lead us. We can see how the Holy Spirit directed not only Jesus, but others in the Bible:

    "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil." Matthew 4:1


    "The Holy Spirit said to Philip, 'Go over and walk along beside the carriage.'" Acts 8:29


    "[Peter said] The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry that they were Gentiles." Acts 11:12


    Where the Spirit moved, the heroes of the faith followed. Will the same be said of you and I? It is a choice. We can learn to draw close to God and learn to not only listen to the Holy Spirit, but follow the Spirit's leading. Or we can remain paralyzed where we are, pretending we didn't hear a thing and thus not only living in direct disobedience to God, but also shortchanging ourselves from the exciting life of faith that exists when you follow God step by step, moment by moment. But in order to live that kind of life of faith, we need to learn to follow His leading, in every area of our life, not just the parts we're okay with surrendering. As Galatians urges us:

    "Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives." Galatians 5:25


    The Choice We Have To Make


    While Nicholas Cage's character knew his future two minutes ahead of time, we follow a God who sees the whole story. He sees how one move today makes a lasting impact in our lives or in the lives of others, days, months or even years down the road. So will you choose to follow His leading through the Holy Spirit, living a life of following the Spirit and rejecting the flesh? Each one of us is able to do it, as long as we're willing to lay down our own desires and thoughts and plans and instead trust that His ways are not only higher, but better than ours.

    "The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for His people." A.W. Tozer


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