Wednesday, 14 May 2025

On the Road to Pentecost: We can lose our Way

 Some people figure that the Word of God is some type of fun-sucking tool that God has imposed upon us, but nothing can be farther from the truth. Anyone who thinks this way has absolutely no understanding of Scripture; they’ve been taught wrong or have themselves misunderstood everything that they have read or heard and have lost their way.

When we gain a proper understanding of God’s Word, we find out, not just whose we are, but who we are and all that entitles us to. We get to know God and the more we know Him the richer our lives become.

God’s Word is a guidebook to prosperity in every area of our lives. God’s Word teaches us that His way is not a burden or a life of undue hardship but is the roadmap to a wonderful fulfilling life.

Did you lose your way?

“Show me the path where I should go, O Lord; point out the right road for me to walk.” – Psalm 25:4 (TLB)

At school, there was a period called Religious Knowledge. Each denomination was assigned a different classroom…actually, the two major denominations, Catholics and Anglicans had a classroom each and then the rest were piled together into another classroom. So, Methodists, Moravians, Pentecostals etc Muslims and Hindus too were squeezed into one classroom once every week, and every new person who came to speak to us would admonish us about the don’ts of life. Each week we were given an all expenses paid guilt trip as speaker after speaker would let us know what awful sin-filled teenagers we were and what horrible sinful adults we were destined to be. It’s a wonder none of us ended up committed to a mental asylum, at least not as far as I know.

This did not show us the way to God but lead us down a crooked, convoluted path to spiritual destruction causing us to lose our way. Thinking back, the speakers who came to teach us religious knowledge, some of them religious leaders, were not properly schooled in their vocation. They had no concept of the spiritual. They too were lost.

In order for us to find our way, we need to be able to understand the revealed truth of God’s Word in terms that we can truly grasp. But how can we unsheathe the sword of the Spirit? (see Ephesians 6:17)

Jeremiah said, “I know, O Lord, that the way of humans is not in their control, that mortals as they walk cannot direct their steps.” (10:23 NRSVUE)

Clearly, we humans, as much as we want to believe that we are in control, are incapable of properly planning our own course. We cannot direct our own steps. The Bible is filled with instructions on the way we should go, and how we should live. However, reading the Bible is not enough, we need that spirit of wisdom and understanding and that spirit of knowledge together with the guidance of the Holy Spirit to study Scripture.

Spirit is the Person who causes the truth of the Scriptures to emerge by wielding the sharper than any double-edged sword Word of God to penetrate our hearts going in and coming out (see Hebrews 4:12). Without the Holy Spirit’s leading we remain lost and misguided, thinking that we know but haven’t a clue that we really don’t have a clue.

We must walk the path with Spirit, day in and day out, if we are to maintain a sense of direction. We cannot afford to lose our spiritual GPS connection to Spirit, otherwise we can lose our way.

Beloved, as you continue walking on the road to Pentecost, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV)

Amen †

 



Shelley Johnson “On the Road to Pentecost: Lost our Way” © 2025, May 13, 2025

 

No comments:

Post a Comment