"Spirit-led"

I had used the phrase 'Spirit-led' in my post titled 'Guilt Vs Love' and I feel I should clarify a point.

This phrase has become a cliché among some circles. People are waiting to be "led" always. We do not have to wait for the glory cloud to envelope us or for a booming voice from the Heaven, when a situation that needs Jesus' touch presents itself. Jesus said, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." (Matt 10:8 NKJV). "Go into all the world and preach the gospel...And these signs will follow those who believe..." (see Mark 16:15-20 NKJV). The directives are straightforward and it is for the believer, not just a select few.

The person who has His power, which He freely gives, is equipped for the task. The authority is His; we are merely yielding ourselves so that He can flow through us. This does not necessarily have anything to do with our senses. Sometimes we may have to step out in faith and when we do that, the Holy Spirit will give us specific words of knowledge or a vision regarding the situation at hand. This is what I meant by 'Spirit-led' in this context. But often times, we like to wait for that 'great anointed minister' to pass through our city, while forgetting that the believer has The Anointing (Jesus) in him. 'Heal the sick' does not have a different or a deeper meaning in Greek. Gospel is powerful. But I can sound "spiritual" and mask the timidity that I have (which is simply a product of unbelief/unrenewed mind) with a statement like, "I do not feel led to go and empty a hospital".

Suppose a person who is gifted with the spiritual gift of prophesy stumbles upon a sick person. Should he say, "well, I'm a prophet and therefore I do not heal the sick"? No, Jesus wants to see the manifestation of the stripes that He bore for everyone. "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven". Jesus healed and delivered those who were oppressed by the devil. Now that He is Spirit, He flows through us to touch others. Although we would have the urge to call it "our ministry", the ministry is really His.

However, each one of us have distinct* assignments (Eph 2:10) in Him. Not everyone is called to occupy the office of a pastor, evangelist, teacher etc. If my calling is to clean the bathroom at church (if you think that it does not need a calling, volunteer to clean your church bathroom for 8 weeks, and see if you can do that cheerfully), I should not try to become a teacher. This "trying" only leads to a flesh-driven activity, which will bear no fruit from Him. But when we are connected with and gently guided by the Holy Spirit, we will have great joy in whatever task that we are involved with and above all, He can do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think.

*Lest it be misread, distinct does not mean that one person is "better" because he or she has a "flashy" assignment than the other. They are not. They are not lesser either. As a matter of fact, 'I' or 'They' no longer exists. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Gal 2:20 NKJV).

I could be 5 seconds or 50 years in Christ Jesus - the resurrection power (Rom 8:11) that houses me is the same in either cases. Jesus Christ or His Power is not the variable here. What changes is my understanding of Who I am carrying, as I renew my mind to the knowledge of my new-creation reality.

Guilt vs Love

Fear/condemnation/guilt-driven preaching begets converts or the churchians, who subscribes to a religious doctrine.

Love (God Himself) begets children.

Little children do not strive to please their parents. They are intuitively aware of their parents' love towards them. They take their parents for granted, not in a negative way, but because they know that their parents are for them and not against them. They cannot comprehend the thought that their parents would desire to give them a cancer so that they would be bright kids in school; the very thought is ludicrous! They are secure in who they are. They are content with what they currently have. If given a gift, of course they would gladly grab it, instead of acting "spiritual" and pretending that they do not need more toys. They neither worry about the future nor do they give thought to past hurts. They live in the present moment and give their full attention to the task at hand. They don't know how to define love or grace, but they are in love and it is the dominant force that automatically emanates from them.

The fear-filled convert on the other hand, is driven by the a deep sense of insecurity. It is this insecurity that leads him to the treadmill of trying to pleasing God. What if He gets mad? Did I pray, fast, give, evangelize, stand in the gap, volunteer enough? The churchian has a full length mirror affixed to his whole body, at all times. His outer part, his performance is what he sees daily and for sure, he sees nothing, but flaws. He can't be blamed for jumping on the treadmill. Little does he realize that, change is something that happens within and not the behavior modification that he is so sincerely trying to accomplish, with zero success. This change within has a name - Jesus. He became wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption for us. He is love. This change is not dependent on one's works. The change is instantaneous when one says Yes to Jesus. We are made righteous. This is why grace is known as nearly too good to be true news. Grace is not a doctrine to debate with the non-conformists. Grace is love. Love is what Jesus did for us. Love is Jesus.

Evangelism is not something we do. It was God who went through the torture and died for all of us and it is God who does not want any one person to perish and therefore evangelism should be a Spirit-led activity and not a formula based one. Only the Holy Spirit knows why a particular person is hardened. Only the Holy Spirit can reach the root of the problem. The Holy Spirit does that through the gifts of the Spirit, through the yielded vessel. Only the Holy Spirit can give us the divine guidance. God just needs our body and mind. Even though on the outside it might seem like 'we' are doing it, it is His life in and through us that does His fruit-bearing (for sure, one can do a lot of things from his or her flesh, but that only glorifies the self) work - whether it is reaching 1 million or just 1 person.

Some people know that they need a Savior. To them, a condemning message would only hurt them deeply and scare them away. They might already be living a living hell; and the last thing they need is the "good news" of hell. They'll flee like Lot did, without turning back. However, this crowd will be thrilled at the invitation of Jesus, just like Zacchaeus, the tax collector was. He was ostracized by his own community, because he worked for the Romans. But when the Gospel invited Himself to Zacchaeus' home, he could hardly believe his ears (which is exactly what grace does, because it is an unmerited, unearned, undeserved gift of God). And change happened in an instant.

Contrast that with the self-righteous rich young ruler who thought he could earn eternal life with his effort. "What shall I do" was his query. To this dude, Jesus (lovingly) gave the righteous standard - the law. When he boasted that he has kept all the commandments, Jesus said (paraphrased), "Bravo, that's cute! Now go sell and distribute your wealth amongst the poor". As a side note, I should add that, this was not a lesson on charitable giving (Zacchaeus was very wealthy too, but Jesus did not ask him to go distribute his wealth or even to follow Him), but to prove that the rich young ruler broke the very first commandment by putting his trust in his wealth than God who gave it to him. As we know, he went away dejected. There are many who thinks they are perfect because they put their trust in their good works, instead of Jesus Christ. Only the Law can show them that their so called good works cannot match the perfection that God requires (because you have to keep 'em all or you break 'em all) and lead them to put their trust in the Savior, who fulfilled the law and paid the price for their sins.

Jesus gives mercy to the 'sinner' and His righteous standard to the wannabe perfectionist. He spoke regarding hellfire to the religionists, who trusted in their law-keeping, but dined with the 'sinners' that the religionists looked down on.

Lord I Lift Your Name on High

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