On July 28, 2011, the Holy Spirit brought me to a scripture that changed everything for me. It was Hebrews 11:8, which says, "By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." As I reread my prayer of reflection in my journal from that day, I sensed that this was a defining moment in my faith walk, the moment of surrender to God's secret will for my life. This was harder for me than surrendering to the more specific call to ministry, because I was being called to blind obedience. I realized that night that there will be times in my life when all I have to go on is my understanding of God's character because He has not yet seen fit to reveal His plans. This has frustrated me from time to time, especially when I am faced with a life-altering decision. However, tonight, in His infinite mercy, the Holy Spirit has led me to another passage of scripture to ease my frustrations and show me that, though I am called to follow in blind faith, God has not left me alone to figure out which path to take. This is what He showed me:
"We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ"
(1 Corinthians 2:6-16)We have been given the Spirit, who knows the thoughts of God intimately. One purpose of the Spirit is to give us a clear understanding of the heart of God the Father. Though God has chosen to keep parts of His will secret from us, He has given us the access to the Spirit, who instructs us about God's character so that we might be better equipped to discern which path is best and which choices honor God. I may not know where I am going, but I know exactly who I'm following. God is faithful, God is loving, God is kind and merciful, and God requires the same of me. God does not ever leave my side and He guides me with His righteous right hand. Scripture is the revelation of the nature of God, and we have been given the very Spirit of God to help us interpret and understand all that has been revealed.
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