Breaking News from the Front. Brooklyn Tabernacle ~ October, 2013

Breaking News from the Front. Brooklyn Tabernacle ~ October, 2013

Hi.

She was a student that had been active at Fellowship of Christian Athletes, but has graduated. She used to live just about two miles from my home, though she is now a college student about 500 miles away … wondering. Wondering how to distinguish the difference between the Lord’s voice and her own, reaching out as she was through a cellphone text message.

And me? Well, it is my privilege to be attending for the third consecutive year, a pastors’ conference at the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York City. It is the place that I go to get refilled; it is the church that reminds me I am a part of a multi-generational, multi-cultural family of God, and not a local body of similar-looking folk. This pastor’s vision for reaching those who are far from God reminds me why I do what I do, and helps me ‘re-up’ year after year. No glitz, no glamour, no glad-handing, and nothing to be gained but a refilling of the Holy Spirit; simply, it is the reason I make plans and then set financial priorities to go.

Usually, I wait until I get home to synthesize the spoken material, but today, I feel a sense of urgency to share with you a message from Pastor Jim Cymbala, founding leader of this unique, loving community galvanized to do the work of God in this huge metropolitan area. He was talking about our man—that is, the man we have been following for several years now—Paul, the apostle. Specifically, how Paul solicited and then heeded the voice of God in his life. In Acts chapter 16, Paul was stopped two different times from sharing the gospel of God … all because God had a different plan.

The question: does God still speak in areas of our lives that do not have to do with moral equations? Does God care enough about the individual circumstances of our lives, that when we seek his will, he will indeed lead us in the way we should go? Unequivocally, the answer must be ‘yes!’ God leads us—his children—because he loves us, and he cares very much about the decisions and directions we take. Friends, the children of God are led by the Spirit of God.*

While the Bible is our guidebook in standards of behavior and righteous living, it does not give us specifics on specific life decisions—for instance, what job to take, which college to attend, etc. But does that mean that he is disinterested, or that he has chosen to remain silent. Absolutely not. We are to seek his favor, and pray that he will guide our footsteps and determine our course. As we look to God, as we seek him and place our trust in him, he does not play ‘hard to get’ or ‘guess what I am thinking’.

Friends, you and I are to pray about everything that concerns us, and ask God to lead and guide us in the way that we should go . . . and then, we must listen! Give God some silence in which to speak. The Spirit of God leads and speaks in the still, small voice . . . through Scripture . . . through dreams, and visions, and through confirmation of the people of God and the resonance of the Holy Spirit within us.

While God speaks to his children through his written Word to be sure, he does indeed speak to us and lead us through his Holy Spirit as well; our Christian life and experience is incomplete without both. Are you desirous to hear the Word of God leading you? Well, have you given him some quiet, and are you listening? Ah, tis the faith-filled, Holy Spirit full life to which we are invited, and anything less is just that—less than the life we are meant to live with our God.

Christine

PastorWoman.com


* – Romans 8.14