It’s time for you to get out of the way and let God’s Spirit chart your path. Stop trying to lead. Stop running from job to job. Stop trying everything that comes your way. Pray! Let the Spirit lead you.
This is the confidence that you should have about God, your job, or anything else. When we ask anything according to God’s will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him, 1 John 5:14-15.
As a child, I played a game called Follow the Leader. First, you choose a leader. Each player stands behind the leader and duplicates everything that the leader does. If you fail to follow or repeat the actions of the leader, you are out of the game.
Now that you know the rules, let’s play Follow the Leader with a little twist. Let’s make the game all about following the Holy Spirit. He will be our leader. Following the Holy Spirit ensures we are aligning our requests with his will.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Remember the statement above about changing jobs? Here’s the scenario we will use. You are one of two people in your department. You don’t believe that the supervisor (Mr. S), sees or appreciates the value in anything you do. He only has eyes for Mr. Favorite (Mr. F).
In spite of this, you know that Mr. F oversells his achievements with little to no evidence to back it up. Although his work is frequently mediocre, he makes his progress reports colorful and attractive to read.
Your work, on the other hand, if plotted alongside Mr. F is better. You report your assignments based on facts. No excessive claims are made. You state the truth with confidence and lay out the best plan of action to meet your goals. But oftentimes, Mr. S is blinded by Mr. F’s charisma. Regardless of what you do, you are always stuck in the middle between exceeding and being below expectations.
― Now that you know the scenario, let the game begin.
Holy Spirit: Pray Eph. 6:18 with dependency on God and be watchful for an answer. “With every prayer and request, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be alert with all perseverance and every request for all the saints.”
You: After praying the scripture you were completely dependent that however things turned out God’s will for you would be met? To top it off, you were watchful and vigilant every step of the way.
Mr. F: Unbelievably, Mr. F rose to the challenge. Seeing God’s powerful work in your life throughout the years, prompted Mr. F to confess his sins. He invited Christ into his life. And, he prayed in faith to follow the Spirit.
Holy Spirit: Great job! The both of you are operating inside of God’s will. Please continue.
Next, I want the both of you to walk outside of your office building and pray as I prompt you.
Mr. F: When Mr. F checked the thermometer, it was 32 ⁰F outside. Being new at following the Spirit, he decided to walk inside the building perimeter. Unfortunately, while indoors, Mr. F was annoyed by the work interruptions, including uninvited conversations.
Holy Spirit: Mr. F, I know that you are new at this, but you didn’t trust me. You trusted in your intellect. Didn’t you know that I had a better plan for you? By doing it your way, you missed out on the intimacy of my presence and answered prayers. Now you must forfeit today’s game. Repent! Learn from your mistake. Return to me, because I want you to succeed in the next Follow the Leader assignment.
You: Despite your hesitation, you ventured out into the cold winter day. The silence was deafening until a prayer dropped into your spirit. You prayed it aloud. Carried by the wings of obedience, your prayer broke through the heavens, reaching the ears of God. He heard you. And, He answered.
Holy Spirit: I know that my request seems weird to you, but the evidence of your submissiveness was seen. Your request reached my ears. I am rejoicing over you. This is the message from God. You are my friend created through faith and obedience. You placed me over the comfort of warmth or what people thought of your actions. Do you remember that job promotion you wanted? It’s on the way. Remember how you were often overlooked by Mr. S? That will change. Do you remember when I asked you to model your faith in front of Mr. F and, as a result, he invited Christ into his heart? That was my will and purpose for you. Go forward with my blessings. Your prayers are answered!
― End Game.
As you already know, the scenario was a playful way to illustrate the following points:
We can ask anything according to God’s will. 1 John 5:14
Whenever you pray in Jesus’ name and request along the lines of who the Father is, it will be done because God wants to complete His desires through you. John 14:13-14
The Holy Spirit will guide you in truth, but you must follow. He will not present his own ideas, but will pass on to you that he has heard. John 16:13
In order to emphasize this lesson even further, God gave me a real-life example. A few days ago, I went to bed feeling led to give a pork loin away to a homeless family who often visited the same street corner. However, the next morning, I completely forgot about it until 10 minutes after I left the house.
Regrettably, I made an excuse to take the food the next day. But that following day, they were gone. Lost opportunity spoke loudly in my ear. This was my real life Follow the Leader opportunity where my will replaced God’s.
Despite learning a hard lesson, thank God, through a repentant heart, there is no mistake that will keep His lovingkindness from me or you. There will be new assignments ahead. We simply need to stay in the game and follow.
Brenette Wilder, formerly of Altheimer, Ark., is a blogger at wordstoinspire105953116.wordpress.com and author of Netted Together, https://nettedtogether.org.
Editor’s note: Pastors, ministers or other writers interested in writing for this section may submit articles for consideration to shope@pbcommercial.com or shope@adgnewsroom.com. Please include your phone number and the name and location of your church or ministry. Writers should have a connection to Southeast Arkansas.