How God guides us: The bicycle principle (Pt. 2)

Continued from yesterday’s blog
.

In Isaiah 58, God charges us with the task of
demonstrating care to the needy and oppressed and promises that if we’ll do so,
not only will our own needs be taken care of, (“you will be like a well-watered
garden”), but in verse 14, we are promised abundant life.

What provision does God give us to take on what may
sometimes seem like impossible tasks? He
promises us what we hunger for most, a direct connection to Himself, a hotline
to God. He says, “Then you will call,
and the Lord will answer, you will cry for help and he will say: Here I am.”

Many of us want the provision and connection without
fulfilling our part of the covenant. We
want to be blessed with His guidance when we’re not going anywhere! But only those who are in motion need
guidance. Paradoxically, by focusing on
our own needs, we are dead in the water, self-absorbed and cut off from the
need for direction.

Only as we make His agenda our priority and launch out into
situations that seem impossible in our strength do we take God at His word and
enter into the terms of this covenant.

This guidance takes on many forms. Paul was guided by circumstance, dreams,
visions, the counsel of others, and Scripture.
The Holy Spirit used a variety of means to guide him because he was in
motion. He was in a posture of
dependence, a posture of trust. God
doesn’t tell us how He will guide us. He
simply says that if we’ll be about His business, He’ll guide us.

When Jesus sent out the disciples for their internship in
Matt. 10, he required two things:

1) They were
to minister to people’s needs

2) They
were to take no props, thus ensuring their dependence.

Jesus told them it wouldn’t be easy and that they would get
into trouble, but he promised them help when he said, “Do not worry about what
to say or how to say it. At that time
you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit
of your Father speaking through you.”

Now that’s guidance.
It worked for the disciples and it will work for us.