This is the Way; Walk in It

Have you ever read the scriptures and a portion of the text jumped out at you? Well, you could think what happened was your own mind, unaided by an outside force, focused you on that text; Or you could think the Holy Spirit Himself was speaking to you through His word.

Did you ever sit in the pew and something the pastor said seemed directed specifically at you? Well, you could chalk it up to ‘coincidence’ – or you could believe the Holy Spirit knew what you needed to hear, and He used the pastor’s words to capture your attention.

There is good reason to believe God DOES speak to us through His word, either in print or by word-of-mouth. Do you remember what Jesus promised before His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension?

“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” (John 14:25-26)

Or what about God’s promise through the psalmist: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.” (Psalm 32:8)

These are only two of the plethora of promises God gives His children regarding His moment-by-moment communication with us.

Moment. By. Moment.

Those are only two of God's multiple assurances of, “Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” (Isaiah 30:21)

Listen! What human father does not speak with his beloved child to guide, protect, encourage, or chasten? Shall we expect any less from our Heavenly Father?

But a word of caution is necessary here. Do not expect the ‘voice’ speaking in our mind to tell us it’s okay to commit adultery. Or fornication. Or get drunk. Or steal. Or take our own revenge. Don’t expect the ‘voice’ to give us permission to do ANYTHING contrary to the revealed word of God – either specifically or in principle. God's Spirit will ALWAYS direct us in full accord with His Scriptures.

To say that last statement a different way, God's Spirit will NEVER contradict His revealed will as found in the Bible – either in word or in principle.

But, yes, we CAN and SHOULD expect Him to speak to us from His word, to guide us into truth and to keep us from error.

So, that’s the choice: We can think more highly of ourselves when something we read in scripture pops out at us – we can think WE came up with that insight on our own, or we can acknowledge that we’re just not that smart to come up with such things on our own.

We can think the pastor has some secret way of knowing our circumstances and he addressed his words particularly at us – or we can acknowledge that the Holy Spirit used the pastor’s words to speak directly to our situation.

As for me, I choose to believe my Father in heaven speaks to me through His word to guide, protect, challenge, exhort, comfort, or chastise me.