So far, we’ve discussed what it means to be a follower of Jesus, what it looks like be led by Him day by day, and how to lean into His completed work so that He can continue to work within you. Today, we’re going to talk about the gift that Jesus has given us to guide us along our walk with Him—the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit is the third person of the trinity—God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is not an “it”; he is God. And he is Christ’s gift to us, the ever-present indwelling person of the life and power of Christ.
We are encouraged toward this end: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). Those same old desires will always be there, giants demanding that we cower and fall. Yet the way we say no to their voices is by saying yes to his. The Spirit speaks and nudges our hearts in the direction of life, truth, and freedom. We can say no so many times that we grow calloused to his leading, or we can choose to say yes time and time again and grow more sensitive to his prompting.
Marc and I spent the night high on the Matterhorn after a grueling hike to the base camp the day before. We walked out the door of the Hörnli Hut before dawn the next day and were immediately tethered to our respective guides with 120 feet of rope. Harness to harness, we were connected as we stepped into the cold, dark morning for the 4,300-foot ascent to the summit. In my head I repeated what my training guide had told me. It’s a “walk up.” We’ll go super slow, and all you need to do is put one foot in front of the other. But about five minutes in, that mantra vaporized as we encountered a fifty-foot wall of rock with a fixed rope hanging down. The wall went straight up like the side of a building. My guide, Richard (different from the one I had trained with), disappeared into the darkness. Before I lost sight of him he said with an even tone, “I’ll get up and get secure. When you feel me tug on the rope, climb behind me.”
What? When you get where? Climb on what? A minute or two later a little jolt hit my harness. So I grabbed the rope and started hoisting myself upward. Our starting point that morning at the Hörnli Hut was at 10,700 feet, so every breath was a piece of work. I pulled with all my might.
As it turned out, this sequence repeated itself in various forms for the next four hours. We’d get to a hard spot in the climb. Richard would vanish. I’d feel the sometimes not-so-gentle tug on my harness. I’d get moving. Soon we’d reconnect and repeat.
You may not be able to see the top of the mountain from where you are, but that’s okay. You may not even be able to conceive of making it ten steps up your mountain, much less four thousand vertical feet. But your Shepherd will do the leading. He’s ahead of you right now. Secure and able to support you if you should slip, he gives you the go-ahead. Take a step. You might be shocked that you can take that step, given that the Enemy keeps telling you that you can’t. You are inseparably linked to Jesus and constantly led by his Spirit.
When the tug from the Spirit comes, say yes. A lot. You’ll be amazed at what you can scale. What you can overcome.
As you say yes, your giants will continue to say no. Complacency happens when we follow our giants’ no. Continue reading with us tomorrow as we discuss what it looks like to combat complacency.
