Romans 14:23 (NLT)
“But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.”
“I’d rather be safe than sorry.” Like me, I’m sure you’ve heard someone say this before. Perhaps you’ve even said it a few times yourself. Life experience teaches us that it is always best to prevent a troublesome situation than to take the chance of dealing with one. Uncertainty is an uncomfortable thing. Did you lock the front door, or turn off the iron or stove? The second guessing can last for hours. Nothing ruins our enjoyment or peace of mind like wondering for any length of time whether we’ve left something important undone when a doublecheck was all it took. These may seem like small oops that we can remedy relatively quickly and easily, but when it comes to being unsure about sin and it’s consequences or the really big important decisions and choices of our lives, not being safe rather than sorry can have a more lasting impact.
Romans 5:5(NLT) tells us, “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” Sometimes, we feel pressured to be all that God wants us to be in a day. He has given His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for our sins and reconciled us to Himself through Christ. He has given us the extraordinarily loving and powerful gift of salvation, and when we accept Jesus Christ as the Lord of our lives, God sends His Spirit to come to live inside us. However, the Spirit doesn’t bum-rush our minds and hearts. He doesn’t come in and immediately start throwing all the wrong stuff out. It’s a gradual process that involves our free-will.
1John 4:13(NLT) tells us, “And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.” This is the best news ever, and it should motivate us to cooperate with the work of the Spirit in every way that we can. It should also prompt us to seek the Holy Spirit’s leadership and guidance in everything that we do. Jesus Christ teaches us in John 16:13 that the Spirit guides us into all truth. All truth means “ALL TRUTH”. There aren’t several different truths. There’s one God, one Spirit, one Son, and one truth. This one truth is the Will and Word of God. It’s the truth about our destinies in Christ; the truth about our identity in Christ, and the truth about our purpose.
God’s truth encompasses His Purpose, Will and Plan for our existences, and this involves every detail of our lives. The Holy Spirit knows all about God’s plan and purpose for us and again, He lives within us, so He has a full view of everything that is going on with us internally and externally.
The Spirit knows all about where we’re supposed to be, when we’re supposed to be there, and how to get us there, but sometimes, we ignore this. God said in Hosea 4:6 (NKJV), “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” What we don’t know about God and His Word can harm or injure us severely, so we need to understand that if we ignore the Spirit’s leadership and guidance, life will go wrong very quickly. God doesn’t want this for anyone.
Joy is one of the spiritual goodies we receive when we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts, but happiness is the wonderful gift we give to ourselves when we follow the Spirit and have a desire to please God. Proverbs 10:28(NLT) tells us, “The hopes of the godly result in happiness,
but the expectations of the wicked come to nothing.” If we’re unsure about any decision in life, we must lean on the Spirit and not act until we hear from him. The Spirit knows the path to our happiness, and he has the power to disconnect us from any path that doesn’t lead to our well-being in Christ. We must never ignore his authority to do this. Instead, we must want, desire, and invite him to lead, guide, and direct us, and then humble ourselves to follow wherever he leads.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Ignoring the Holy Spirit”, written by KLizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.