KNOWING WHAT TO DO

There are times that come to each of us when we simply do not know what to do with what is going on in our lives. Knowing what to do when we don’t know what to do becomes a function that belongs to that part of us that is more than rational, more than calculating or trained; it is a power that is in us, but beyond us. The infilling of the Holy Spirit of God is in part so we may “be led by the Spirit.” When we don’t know what to do, we need to be led.

Being led by the Spirit is not the absence or exclusion of our logic, reason and rationale, but rather it is the ability to allow the Spirit of God to influence and lead those very areas. The apostle Paul gives a contrast of clarity, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh,” and “if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.” Earlier he wrote, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” (Romans 8)

Perhaps this is the defining difference when we don’t know what to do: it is a matter of living like sons or living like slaves. A son is someone who does what the father would do. A slave is someone who only does what he or she is told to do. When we don’t know what to do, we do what the father would do. To do what the father would do is only possible by being led by the Spirit of the Father. Otherwise we are led by our thinking and processing, and though it may be moral and sound, it is not necessarily Spirit formed and led, it is still flesh. Not evil flesh, but still flesh. Knowing what to do when we don’t know what to do, like so many other things, is an act of surrender.

“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me.” Jesus