Where the Spirit Leads

I mentioned to you at the end of my last email that I also wanted to share a few thoughts about WHERE the Spirit leads us, and WHY so few stay close to Him. 

Everybody begins with imaginations about these things. First we imagine what walking in the Spirit means, and then we go on imagining what it feels like, or what the Spirit is going to lead us into. And the reason that we all begin with imaginations about spiritual things is because there is nothing else to begin with. Human thoughts about spiritual things ARE imaginations, and they can be nothing else. I mean, the very fact that they come from the darkness of our own natural mind, and correspond to the things we’ve seen and experienced in the earth, makes them imaginations and false images. I suppose it would be the same for a person born blind if he had only heard about rainbows, sunsets, and clouds. All of his thoughts about these things could be nothing more than imaginations. 

It’s not wrong to begin with imaginations about spiritual things. But it is incredibly important to hold our ideas very loosely, and always be willing to be corrected by the Spirit of truth. We gain spiritual knowledge as we grow in spiritual life and experience. And all of our guesses and interpretations and opinions are always destroyed by the appearing of the Truth. 

Now, our imaginations about walking in the Spirit can be particularly dangerous, because they are almost always the opposite of what we actually experience when God is leading us, and this causes great confusion. For example, think for a minute about the Israelites coming out of Egypt. There is no doubt that they were being led by the Spirit of God. God gave very specific instructions to Moses, and put a pillar of fire and cloud over the tabernacle for the people to follow. But being filled with their OWN expectations about what it meant to follow God, to walk in covenant with Him, to serve Him, to travel to the Promised Land, to be saved from their enemies, etc., they continually complained that God had abandoned them, or that Moses was misleading them. And this is EXACTLY what happens today when a heart gives up to follow the Spirit. 

It is very sad that there are so many versions of Christianity today that do not teach, or even believe in, the inward journey that the soul of man has to undergo when we begin to “deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Christ.” Most talk as though there ISN’T really any journey. We just ask God to forgive our sins, or ask Christ into our heart, or follow the four steps to salvation, and we have arrived! So there is no real need for any following, cross-bearing, dying to self, walking in the Spirit, crossing the wilderness, being transformed, overcoming, etc. These things are sometimes mentioned in churches, but often in a way that makes them sound like they are extra-credit. I mean, people will usually confess that these are good things, and that they are in the Bible, but they will rarely acknowledge that they are normal and necessary, and much less are they able to speak of them with any real experience or authority. 

But the truth is that Christianity isn’t a status or position or legal transaction where you arrive somewhere even though you have gone nowhere. Christianity is the LIFE of Christ given to the soul of man like an implanted Word, a mustard seed, a living talent or mina, a measure of the Spirit, that immediately begins to take the soul of man on an inward journey out of one nature and into another. 

Have you ever noticed how Israel was supposed to eat the Passover Lamb in the book of Exodus? God provided a Lamb for their salvation. He gave them a way to be free from the death and slavery of Egypt, and opened up the Red Sea before them. But how were they supposed to eat this gift of God? Exodus 12:11 “And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover.” Now that seems like a really strange way to eat a Passover Lamb, until you realize that from God’s perspective, the receiving of this gift was always the beginning of a journey. 

The truth of the matter is that everybody who has ever truly known and experienced what it means to be led by the Spirit, or to walk in the Spirit, knows that the Spirit of God (as soon as we’re willing to follow Him) does not leave us in the same place. Following Christ doesn’t just mean believing His words, or asking Him what you are supposed to do. Following Christ means following Him OUT of something, and into something else. And of course this doesn’t have anything to do with outward movement from one location to another. It has to do with a very real inward travel or change, a change that is illustrated for us in several Old Testament stories of journeys, like that of Abraham being called out of his “country, kindred, and fathers house” to go to a land that God would show him. Or Lot being called out of the wicked city of Sodom to travel to the mountain. Or Israel being called out of Egypt, to cross the wilderness, and enter into the Promised Land. 

This is the reason why Jesus so frequently called His disciples to follow Him. And this is also the reason that the apostles often represent following Christ as a race that they must run, as a battle that they must fight, or as a pilgrimage, etc., all of which amounts to a discernible and experiential traveling OUT of the natural, fallen, fleshly man, and a coming INTO the possession of a new life, new nature, and new kingdom. Paul says: 

• Heb 12:1-2 Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
• 1 Cor 9:24-27 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

And when the apostles describe what is actually taking place in this ongoing race or battle, they use words like these: 

• Eph 4:22-24 Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
• 2 Cor 4:10-11 [We are] always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
• Phi 3:13-14 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

These verses are obviously not describing a new position or legal status, but rather a real change, a real  journey, a real leaving something behind, and a progressive gaining of something new. And I mention all of this now because being led by the Spirit, or learning to walk in the Spirit, will mean being led out of every form of sin, evil, darkness, deadness, selfishness, pride, envy, and wrath that constitutes man’s fallen state, and being brought into an inward possession (and not just a verbal profession) of the life of God in the soul of man. And I don’t mean just coming out for the GUILT of sin, but progressively coming out of the POWER of sin, the SLAVERY to sin, and the EXPERIENCE of it.

And it is because Christians are generally so unfamiliar with the EXPERIENCE of this change (though they are often familiar with the terms that the Bible uses to describe it), that they so frequently become confused and discouraged when following Christ quickly leads them into the wilderness. I mentioned to you that the Spirit of God leads man somewhere that he generally does not want to go, and because of this many do not stay close to Him. What I meant was this: that contrary to our desires and our expectations, the Lord leads all true followers into the wilderness, where we are made to see what is really in our heart, and given an opportunity to surrender every root of self and sin to the cross.

And because this is such an unfamiliar way and subject to many, and is so little known and talked about by priests, pastors, and teachers in our day, believers who begin to experience the wilderness are often distressed and confused when they begin to experience it, thinking that something totally strange or wrong is happening to them. 

What is the wilderness? I mean, what does it represent? What is it that God leads us into before we can experience His kingdom of righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit? ONE way to answer this question is to say that YOU are the wilderness. What I mean is that the dry, dead, barren land that is full of serpents, scorpions, golden calves, Egyptian appetites, carnal expectations, and angry murmurings, is the state of your own fallen heart. And the only way into a real experience of His promised land is a way that leads you OUT of yourself. Deuteronomy chapter 8 says: 

Vs 2: And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart… 15 [He] led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end.

The only way into true peace with God is the way that makes you first see, and then deny and give over to the cross, the life that was born in Egypt. This is why the wilderness is not optional. And this is why God did not take Israel out of Egypt and immediately plop them down into the land flowing with milk and honey. You see, there was an incompatibility issue. There was need for a great circumcision first…I mean a great removal of the fallen, fleshly man. Or you could say, there was a flaming sword guarding the Tree of Life. Anyone who has really surrendered their will to be led and taught and corrected by the Spirit of God will be made to see what is in his heart, and to feel the great distance between Adam and Christ.

Now the fact that this surprises and confuses us is a sad commentary on the church age in which we live. These things should NOT be a mystery to the church today. And surely they would not be such a mystery or a surprise if there were more fathers and mothers in our Israel who, having traveled it, knew the narrow path that leads through the wilderness. (I am often made to lament the lack of true spiritual fathers and mothers in the church today, and who have learned by experience the nature of this journey) But things being as they are, almost as soon as any sincere seeker of truth finds themself surrounded by inward serpents, scorpions, trials, confusion, hunger, thirst, and horrible views of his own spiritual condition, they are told by leaders in the church that this is NOT the right path, this is NOT the leading of the Spirit, and there is absolutely NO reason for a Christian to feel these things.

What a horrible tragedy this is! When the Spirit of God gives us our first true glimpse of the real condition of our heart, we are encouraged to turn our backs and ignore it. Some say that this is the voice of the enemy. I’ve heard others say that we are “children of the king,” and God would never treat His children that way. Others say we are already in the Promised Land (despite all the inward and outward evidence to the contrary). But very few understand or preach that it is good and necessary for the Spirit of God to show us the true state of our hearts, and to begin our journey by making us face and feel the lack of Christ’s life and light and love in our souls. 

After being struck by a visitation of God’s love, or touched by His outstretched arm, new Christians often assume that they can immediately walk with God, and do great things for Him and with Him. They are excited, encouraged, and motivated for a time, but if they continue to follow, they inevitably begin to encounter something of their wilderness state; I mean, they bump into something of their true hunger and thirst, their mistaken expectations, frequent complaints, false gods, false hopes, dirty hearts, and they begin to wonder what is wrong. But nothing is wrong that hasn’t always been wrong. They are simply starting to see what’s been wrong all along, and in this way they are given the opportunity to give it over to death.

I said that ONE way of defining the wilderness is to say that YOU are the wilderness—that it represents the state of your own fallen heart, and your journey out of it. ANOTHER way to say the same thing, or perhaps the other side of the same coin, is to say that the wilderness is the experience of the daily cross of Christ. Crossing the wilderness means “always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” In the words of the prophets, it is an opportunity to give over to the sword that which is for the sword; give over to fire that which is for fire; and give over to hunger that which must be starved. It is a progressive seeing, denying and crucifying of all that cannot inherit the Promised Land. Paul says, “For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Rom. 8:13

This wilderness is inevitably the experience of everyone who sincerely gives up their life to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It should not be a surprise. It should not be a mystery. We should not grumble or complain, or think that something unusual is happening to us. Peter says, “Do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.” (1 Pet 4:12) Every man and woman who has ever been faithful to the leading of the Spirit was led in this same way. Walking in the Spirit always leads to the cross of Christ, and this is the reason why I said few want to stay close to Him. And this is why I spent years of my life trying to find another way, before I finally found my way back to what the Bible calls the “ancient path” or the “highway of holiness.”