My father is deceased, in fact, June 14th is the anniversary of his death. I have fond memories of my dad.
He taught me how to throw and catch a baseball and he went to all my basketball games.
I had an affectionate family growing up and it had a lot to with him. He said he loved me every day. We would usually exchange hugs and kiss as a greeting and when we would say goodbye.
I love and miss my dad. I even miss his idiosyncrasies.
My mom cooked dinner most of the time but when we went out to eat my dad would usually choose Barnhills. It was a family buffet, a slop of a place. It always smelled like feet to me.
Mom and I would have much rather preferred a Chinese buffet, but It was either that or leave dad at home.
On road trips, if you had to use the bathroom the only acceptable place to stop for my dad was Hardee’s. We would pass suitable places to stop but dad only wanted to go there. We learned that where dad went, we went. We just wanted to be where my dad was.
Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Romans 8:14 (NIV)
Where the Spirit goes, we go.
Where the Spirit leads may not be the most comfortable place to go. It may not even be to the places we might wish to go. And we may at times be uncertain about the path we are taking with the Spirit.
Yet, even in uncertainty and uncomfortableness, if we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, God can do a good work in us that does us and the world great good.
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to fast and was tempted by Satan.
The Spirit led Jesus to the cross. He prayed that God may find another way, but he was strengthened in his prayer and accepted the pain of the cross. Through the power of the Spirit, there was nothing that would stop Jesus from defeating sin and death, not even death itself.
After Stephen was killed in Acts 7 the Christians preached the gospel.
When James the brother of John was killed Christians kept preaching.
The disciples were flogged and went away rejoicing. They were imprisoned multiple times and they refused to stop preaching.
Paul in the book of Acts was beaten in Lystra and left for dead but got up and went back into the same city!
Peter preached the gospel to Cornelius and his Gentile household. He had never set foot in a non-Jewish home, but the Spirit had already broken the threshold. Where the Spirit went, Peter went.
While Peter was preaching the message of salvation to Cornelius the Spirit fell on the household and Peter knew he could not deny Gentiles the privilege of being baptized into Christ.
A Roman soldier’s home was not a place that Peter wanted to go. The Spirit had to give Peter three visions to convince him and he submitted to God’s call. Peter’s faith allowed God to do a great work through him for the world.
The Spirit led the disciples to decide to make it easy for Gentiles who were turning to God by not binding the law and their traditions on them in Acts 15 because it seemed “good to us and to the Holy Spirit.”
They were convicted and chose to engage the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are called to do the same, NO MATTER WHAT.
Where the Spirit goes, we go. The places we are called to go may be uncharted territory.
Yet, we will not be afraid. We will resist the urge to remain inactive due to uncertainty but will choose to follow in faith. And when we are uncomfortable, we will ask for boldness.
No matter what or where we will go where the Spirit goes because the Spirit always wants to lead others into the presence of Jesus.
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Jovan preaches for the Littleton Church of Christ near Denver, Colorado. Visit here to listen to sermons preached at the Littleton Church.
Excellent! Thank You Jovan! Looking Forward To Your Next Blog. Bill
Thanks you Bill for reading and commenting!