Looking back at your life, how many times do you feel that God led you to choose or not to choose a certain course of action? And how many times did you act against your better judgment, only to realize later that you should have followed your “instincts” or your “first impression”?
Do you sometimes feel today that you are being motivated to do or not to do something, without fully knowing as to why that is? If you truly know God and are close to Him, you will experience that you are being directed in certain ways, and it is always good to carefully listen to and consider that guidance.
This has nothing to do with superstition—it is in fact God who is leading you and working in your life. In Luke 2:27, we read that God’s Spirit motivated Simeon to come into the temple to see the Child Jesus. In Matthew 4:1, we are told that the Father, through His Spirit, led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The Holy Spirit inspired and directed the ministry to appoint Paul and Barnabas as apostles who were then sent by the Holy Spirit to Seleucia and Cyprus (Acts 13:1-4). On other occasions, Paul and his fellow workers were prohibited or prevented by the Spirit of God from traveling to Asia and Bithynia (Acts 16:6-7).
We are told that we are God’s children if His Spirit leads, guides and directs us (Romans 8:14), and that we must follow Christ wherever He goes and wants us to go (Matthew 16:24; Revelation 14:4). This means that we have to be very attentive to the Father’s and Christ’s lead. When God shows us the way, we must not close our ears and our eyes, thinking this might not be the right course of action because it may not be the easy road to travel, or because it might not make that much sense at the time.
Abraham left his homeland to follow God, “not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). Moses followed God’s lead, “as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). Enoch and Noah walked or “lived constantly” with God (Genesis 5:24; 6:9, Elberfelder Bible). Christ was leading them, and they followed His steps, as we must do today (1 Peter 2:21).
Sometimes we may think that God has to speak to us in obvious and spectacular ways before we are ready and willing to listen, but many times, God speaks to us with a still small voice (1 Kings 19:11-13). How attentive are we to His subtle lead? And how determined are we to follow that lead even when others try to dissuade us? The Galatians ran well, but they were then hindered to obey the truth and follow God. Paul said that this persuasion did “not come from Him who calls” us (Galatians 5:7-8). When God directs us, we must follow, no matter where our path may lead.
