Being Spirit-led

Seeking to be an authentic community of disciples, becoming more like Jesus - walking in step with God, alongside each other and seeing lives transformed

At CBC our Vision helps us to understand where we are headed, and our seven Core Values shape everything that we do and say.

Last week we took a break from our series, but today we continue our more detailed look at our Core Values. If you have missed any of these posts then use the links to catch up - or use the labels at the bottom of the page.

Our Core Values: Loving, Welcoming, Missional, Servant-hearted, Biblical, Spirit-led and Prayerful.

Today we're going to think about what it means to be Spirit-led.

Isaiah 55:8-9 we read: 

'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'

Later this year we're going to be looking at the book of Judges. There are some fairly horrific stories in Judges, the result of the people turning their backs on God and everyone doing 'as they saw fit'. But there are other stories in the Bible where we find people making what seem to be good decisions - but they do so without asking God - and it turns out they did the wrong thing - because God's ways are not our ways...

One of the things that came out of the Vision and Values process last year was a desire as a church to do what God wants. To listen to God's Spirit and to be led by the Spirit. Not to do the things that we think are good ideas, but to do what God wants. But how easy do we find it to separate out our good ideas from what God is really saying? 

This is part of the reason why we come together as a church meeting to listen to God - as God speaks through each of us. It's why we spend time in prayer - not just speaking but also listening. It's why we read the Bible - getting to know God and what he is like.

I'm sure many of us will have known what we thought was the prompting of the Spirit to do or to say something (usually something we didn't want to do) which we have then not done. Listening to the Spirit is something that we can learn. The more obedient we are, the more we get to know what the prompting of the Spirit feels like. The more we ignore the Spirit the less likely we are to know what the Spirit sounds like.

So the next time that you think that the Spirit is asking you to do something don't ignore him. If you're not sure ask the advice of a trusted mature Christian friend. And then step out in obedience and faith and see what God does.

A Risky Business

A couple of Sundays ago was Pentecost - the day when Christians celebrate God sending the Holy Spirit, as recorded in Acts 2. This reading was a part of our E100 Bible reading programme a few weeks ago, and was followed by two weeks in the book of Acts reading stories of persecution, evangelism, church planting and church growth, wrestling with issues, escape from prison...

They were indeed exciting times - and I wonder if we ever read Acts and wish things were just a little more exciting these days. But surely they could be. Could we even say that they should be. The Spirit that came upon the disciples in Acts 2 is the same Spirit that God promises to believers today.

I was listening to a long term missionary speaking on Sunday evening. One of the things he said in response to a question asked about why mission organisations are seeing a drop in long term mission personnel is that we, as Christians in the west, have become comfortable and risk averse.

Part of being risk averse is that we never willingly put ourselves anywhere near a situation where we are going to be out of our depth or beyond our resources.

The trouble is that those are the very places where our faith will be strengthened, and we will have to rely on God rather than on ourselves. Those are the places where we will see the Spirit at work, because we can't do it for ourselves. Those are the exciting places.

We don't need to join a long term mission team canoeing up the Amazon to put ourselves beyond our own resources. If you're a Christian reading this then I'm sure there is something that comes to mind when asked the question, what is it that God is asking you to do - that you haven't done yet?

Pentecost Sunday - Acts 2:1-47

Imagine what it would have been like to have been there on that Pentecost day when the promised Holy Spirit filled those believers as recorded in Acts 2. What would it have been like for them, and for those in the crowd - who had never seen or experienced anything like it before?

But of course part of the celebration of Pentecost is the fact that we can experience something of that 'first' Pentecost, as we experience God pouring His Spirit on us, as He has promised to do on all believers. [Note that Pentecost was a Jewish festival long before it became a Christian celebration (Leviticus 23:15-22). So whilst Christians celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, strictly speaking this was not the first Pentecost.]

What is the purpose of the Jewish festival of Pentecost (Shavot)? [Add your comments].

But what are the true signs of the presence of the Spirit in the life of a Christain? Speaking in tongues (4), signs and wonders (43), evangelistic success (41), prophecy (17-21), sharing your possessions with the poor (45), devotion to prayer (42), eating together (46)........ ?

When you think of someone as 'filled with the Spirit' where do you look for the evidence of this? What leads you to the conclusion that they are Spirit filled? Is it gifts (e.g. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; Ephesians 4) or fruit (Galatians 5:22-23), or a bit of both or something else? Why not add your thoughts and comments below?