Day 19

“In his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” — Proverbs 16:9

On the day of Pentecost, when God poured out His Holy Spirit and the church was born, Peter stood up and declared the words of God from the prophet Joel to a multitude of people, which included, “I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams” (Acts 2:17). Part of the Holy Spirit’s ministry is giving visions to the young and dreams to the old. Vision is about things we will be part of – hence, to the young. Dreams may be the exact same thing, but we may no longer be part of it – hence, it is to the old. Either way, we need to experience visions and dreams as part of God’s means of guidance.

But when we follow the vision, what happens if we go wrong? Some of us are so paralyzed by the fear of a wrong move that we never make a right move. God has a built in parachute for the wrong mover! Isaiah 30:21 says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, you’ll hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way. Walk in it’.” If you go to the left or right, you will hear a voice behind you setting you straight. Why is the voice behind us? Because sometimes we can live for years in the right place, doing the right thing, making the right moves with no need for conscious confirmation of guidance from God. He is actively guiding us. But, once we make a wrong move or wander off course, the Spirit of God will, in some way, pull us back on track. How He does that is His business and will be done differently in different lives, but the principle is true for us all. When we acknowledge Him in all our ways, His guidance becomes part of life.

Living in the general will of God, acknowledging Him in all our ways, prepares us to be recipients of visions and dreams, which the Spirit places in our hearts, and we need to boldly follow. It took courage for Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Jeremiah and many others to step out in obedience to God. They didn’t sit passively by, waiting for God to do the moving. He gave direction and they gave obedience, and once these two came together, no matter how impossible the task seemed to all those men, God remained actively involved in the ongoing process of leading, directing, correcting, enabling and fulfilling His agenda through them. This remains our confidence today. His vision for us becomes reality in the context of courageous obedience and unquestioning trust.

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, I thank you so much for the guidance you have undertaken in my life. I trust you and thank you for your Holy Spirit who gives me vision and lets me know when I’ve gone wrong and gets me back on track.

To reflect upon: In what ways have I felt the Spirit of God pulling me back when I’ve made a wrong move? What were the circumstances?