And they passed through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, yet the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. (Acts 16:6-7, RecVer)
By virtue of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit has been given to us (Acts 5:32) inwardly on the day of our spiritual birth. Since then, this Spirit of Jesus or the Holy Spirit has been leading us day by day provided one pays heed to His leading. It is now the responsibility of every believer to live and walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16, 25).
As such a one learning to live and walk by the Spirit, I have been experiencing the Spirit's leading either in going ahead or in being forbidden. As Christians, we have to proactively take actions according to the light of God’s word. Should the Spirit forbade us, then we should immediately take action to stop going any further. Otherwise, as the peace of God abides within, we must proactively carry out God’s commission.
In a number of cases, I have been restricted in my spirit and forbidden to go ahead with what I initially planned to do. In fear and trembling before God, I would check every matter before moving ahead. This practice helped me spent more time to pray over matters that concerned me. Be it considering my brothers' fellowship on joining a National College Students training, or consulting brothers for official matters, or approving a huge amount of money for construction of distribution books storeroom, or planning for a distribution trip to Karnataka, or even applying credit card for paying my daughter's admission application fee online, or even trivial matters like cutting hair or buying household items, and many other matters too. The Spirit's forbidding and allowing, toggling between a "yes" or a "no", has been my constant experience. I believe, I am being trained to follow the Spirit succinctly. In many cases, I had to change my own initial plan and thought. What my natural man thought initially, when proven to be not of the Spirit, I changed. In this way, the Lord trained me to follow him and experience the Spirit's leading step by step. This reminds me of the Lord’s words to Simon, son of John.
Truly, truly, I say to you, When you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go. (John 21:18, RecVer)
I am glad that I have been led by the Lord through the saints surrounding me, my brothers in the church, my family members, and even my circumstances. I am learning to be pliable, to be sorber minded, and not to be rebellious or disobedient in any way. I fear God and even more fearful to grieve the Holy Spirit. The peace of God in everything I decided to do is of utmost importance to me. In this way, I learned to experience the Spirit of Jesus.
A Christian life is a life of experiencing the Spirit of Jesus, in many cases, of forbidding. What a blessing it is to be forbidden when not in the perfect will of the Lord! What a salvation!
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