FOLLOWING HIS LEAD

I think that ministry is more a matter of following the directions of my Navigator than it is trying to read and follow a map. With a map, I can see the goal of where I am heading, and can see what the roads should look like (or, at least, what they looked like when the map was made). But with a Navigator, there are responses to unforeseen changes in plans and even side adventures along the way!

The Book of Acts would rightly be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. The book is really about Him and His navigations of the early church. Consider chapters 10 and 11 as one example.

Cornelius is not a Jew, but he prays and loves God. One day God comes to him in a vision and tells him to find a man (Simon, called Peter) who is staying at someone's house (Simon the tanner) in another city. He sends three trusted men. In the meantime, God talks to Peter at exactly the right time (the next day). Peter sees a vision three times in which he is told to eat unclean animals. He is still scratching his head about what that means when the three (Gentile) men come his door. Suddenly he realizes that the vision was about people, not about food or animals, and he willingly goes to the home of the Gentile, Cornelius. The next day they arrive and Peter is willing to enter Cornelius' house, which he never would have done just two days before. As Peter begins to explain about his vision and his realization that no man is unclean, the Holy Spirit falls on all those in the house, accompanied by tongues and great joy. Peter responds by allowing them to be baptized, and in the next chapter Peter defends his actions based on these experiences. The whole church rejoices.

Imagine how different it would have been had Peter been following a different roadmap. Maybe one day he is reading his Bible, and it becomes clear to him that God always intended for the Gentiles to come into the Kingdom. He talks it over with the other apostles, and they agree. Some start a new Gentile Outreach Ministry. They print brochures and send out mailers and have a huge Gentile launch.

What would have happened to the church? I guarantee it would have split, and there would have been a Jewish church and a competing Gentile church. It would have split because it was not as undeniably the leading of God to go this new, unpredictable direction.

How beautiful when leadership listens and follows the move of God, not running ahead or falling behind. And how beautiful when the people follow, trusting those who are in the lead.