Leading or Following

Are you leading or following? I am talking about your walk with God in this life. Are you allowing God to lead or are you trying to lead Him? We can attempt great things for God and be completely out of His will. We can get in His way by trying to help His plan along. You remember Abram and Hagar. Let us go to the Word.

Exodus 40: 36-38: And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

God had promised to go with Israel in their journey. He would lead them by a cloud in the day and fire in the night. When the cloud or fire stopped, they pitched camp. When the cloud or fire moved they broke camp and followed. It mattered not whether the place was comfortable or uncomfortable; they rested or moved according to the cloud.

A few years ago, The Lord showed us not to plant our tent stakes too deep. I did not understand what he meant. I do now. When God begins to move, you need to break camp quickly. We must be sensitive to the Spirit so we can go where He wants us to go and do what He wants us to do.

The problem is we get ahead of the Lord and try to do things our way. His ways are not our ways. (Is.55:8) He desires to teach us His ways so we can walk in His path. (Is.2:3)
God teaches not in a classroom. He teaches in the wilderness, the desert, on the mountain and in the valley. He teaches if we will hearken.

Now for all of you that are saying that is Old Testament, let’s move to the new. Jesus told Matthew to follow Him. Matthew arose and followed. (Matt.9:9) By the way Matthew never collected another tax. He did not become a Christian tax collector. Jesus called Phillip and said follow Me. (John 1:43) I could give many examples But Jesus does the leading, we do the following.

How do we follow Him today? We follow Him like sheep. The sheep know the voice of the Shepherd. It is ours to listen and His to speak. I believe the Lord speaks to us in different ways, but He does speak. When He speaks, do you listen or do you debate? He will not debate with you. He will give the command and wait for your obedience. By the way, He has all the time in the world, you do not.

Sometimes, God leads with shut doors. In The book of Acts, Paul was on a missionary journey. He tried to go north and the Spirit would not permit. He tried to go south and the Spirit would not let him. So, he continued west as for as he could go without a ship. It was there he had the vision of the man from Macedonia. So you see, sometimes God lets us reach a dead end before we get further instructions. (Acts 16:6&7) That’s why we call it faith.

There is a way that looks right but it leads to death. (Proverbs 14:12) We cannot assume that because the way looks smooth and comfortable, it is the right way. We must get the mind of the Spirit. God will speak through our circumstances. If he is allowing the same thing over and over, He is probably trying to tell you something.

So, I ask you again. Are you leading or following? Stop today and ask God to confirm that you are on His path. If you find that you are not, then confess to Him and ask Him to return you to the right path. May we all continue to go where He sends.