Being Led by the Spirit

An amazing God encounter which blew both my wife and I away!  The verse in Romans 8 had been in my heart for several months, it reads "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God."  I was struck by the reality that being led by His Spirit actually revealed our true identity.  As our family has wrestled with God's specific calling and vision for our lives, we came to a place to have some clarity.  Then we took a big step of faith by sharing the ministry's leadership we have been a part of for almost 8 years that it was time for us to move on.  This was truly bitter and sweet, sweet to follow the Lord's groanings inside of us and bitter to be leaving people that we love.  As we took this step of submission to the Lord we were greeted by leadership with understanding, grace, and even encouragement into our future and destiny.  In this journey Father taught us how to bless the people of ELM and not hold onto any negative feelings, I believe Father was setting us up for a blessing we did not expect.

I had met with the pastor of our church for wisdom, counsel, and direction through this transition.  We had a great meeting and our spirits connected right away, we both agreed to pray and seek the Lord over what was next.  In the short time we had been at the church there had been some transition and several staff members had left.  I went on vacation and got back and had a discussion with my boss and felt it best if I wrapped up my position on August 30th, this was sooner that I expected but my trust was in the Lord.  After sitting in corner of a bustling Mexican restaurant with people that I had been in battle with (spiritual battles over people's lives), the end of my time at ELM came quickly.  Yet Father was at work behind the scenes.  I had attempted to call our pastor but found out he was on vacation, the Lord had assured me to be patient but I was nervous.  Only two days after leaving ELM my former boss is sitting in a Starbucks, his group is approached by a man who turns out is a pastor who knows me (the two of them had never met before).  Our pastor says, that the language of the Spirit is unusual circumstances or things that are repeated.  Our pastor in his sermon talked about having a divine appointment, we were shocked that after the sermon he came up to us to tell us that we were the subject of the divine appointment.  Both men had been very honoring to me about how I had walked in trusting the Lord and stepping out in faith.  This clearly was divine favor that followed us placing our trust in the Lord and stepping out on God's word to us sacrificing our current security (the position at ELM).  Grace does not mean that there is not sacrifice, risk, or equal reward for all, stewardship of what God has entrusted to us does bring favor (parable of the talents).

It has been both thrilling like a twisting roller coaster and also terrifying like the drop when you get to the top to be led by the Spirit for the direction of life.  What is amazing is deep within our being we were made to go on this adventure to follow His lead, life is an adventure to be lived not a problem to be figured out.  Listen to His voice today and step into the adventure He has for you, you were created to trust and as you do you experience His love.

In Father's Love,
Bret