May
27

Humble Responsiveness

Featuring Bob Kauflin Posted on May 27, 2010

 

If we acknowledge our dependence on God's Spirit and eagerly expect him to be working in power, then we should be humbly responsive to what he is doing.

That first means fulfilling our responsibilities with joy, expectation, and faithfulness. No Sunday is a “normal” Sunday. No meeting is a “routine” meeting. Every time we gather, we can expect God to do the miraculous, transforming us into his image as we behold his glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).

A while back we had to begin offering two meetings on Sundays due to space limitations. We frequently remind ourselves that there are no identical services when we're depending on the Holy Spirit's power, and we need to pray just as earnestly for the second meeting as we do for the first.

Humble responsiveness also involves acting on impressions we receive while leading. What might the Holy Spirit “say” to us? We may feel led to emphasize a certain line from a song or repeat a verse that draws attention toa relevant theme. The Spirit might bring to mind a particular need or a reason to celebrate. He might direct us to a Scripture we hadn't previously thought of including.

It's important to add here that impressions like these will never replace our absolute confidence in God's written Word. The Bible is our only infallible rule for life, practice, and doctrine, and it remains the primary way God speaks to us and the standard by which any impression is tested. But spontaneous spiritual gifts serve to confirm God's active presence in our midst, to strengthen, encourage, and build up his people.

When God speaks to us subjectively through his Spirit, we want to behumbly responsive. 

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