Respond

As Jesus' servants, it is crucial that we try to respond to the Holy Spirit's promptings. When we accepted Him as our Savior, we also accepted Him as Lord, the ultimate controller of all we do. How doe we understand what our Lord wants? Perhaps we ask others for their opinions about what He might want, and they likely have opinions. When we consider the stated or practiced opinions of others, we must remember Paul's words to the searching Corinthians,  "So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit" - 1 Cor. 12:3 (NLT)  The best way to gather opinions about what Jesus wants is to consult his own words from scripture and ask the Holy Spirit to help us understand how the words apply to us in this time. As we read scripture, our minds may quickly become overwhelmed. These first words were spoken at a times far removed from today and to a culture that seems “different’ in the ways it valued people and interpreted concepts. We must, however realize that the people of the first century also struggled to understand some of the writings. Nonetheless, they relied on the Holy Spirit to help them understand the core teachings. The concepts written in scripture from God are greater than our greatest thought and are more complex than our most insightful moment can help us comprehend. But there is a promise on which we can always rely: the Holy Spirit will never lead us to say anything untruthful or unholy about God - as Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God convicts us of the truth, gives us insight into the truth, and empowers us to declare the truth. Confessing Christ as Lord indicates a heart full of faith, a testimony to God's grace, and is a declaration of our commitment to our Lord. The Holy Spirit unlocks our minds and empowers our hearts to confess Jesus as Lord!