Obedience

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

OBEDIENCE

Acts 20:22-24

22 "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me — the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.

NIV

There is so much here we might have to stay here for several days, so let us first consider being compelled by the Spirit. It would appear that Paul lived his life following the leading of the Spirit. That is to say, he did not necessarily go where he wanted to go, but went where the Spirit lead him. This is obviously a very important life lesson for us. It is imperative that we live in that same manner. We as human beings can make some awful decisions. We can decide to do something, or go somewhere that turns out to be a disaster at the least. But if we are listening, if we are open, the Spirit will compel us in the direction we should go, just as he did with Paul. We know this because this man has already experienced this more than once in his life, in fact, numerous times. The Spirit has compelled him as to where to live, and where to work over and over again, and it is right to expect this will continue to be the way of life.  We can make plans and plot out the course of our life, but here we see that Paul was simply compelled to go to Jerusalem and he did not know what would happen once he got there. Should we not live like that as well? Why do we think we have to decide every aspect of our lives before we do anything? Why should we try to design our future, planning all our options or considering all the scenarios?  If we are being compelled by the Spirit, that is all we really need to know. Can we at least discuss what the possibilities are? There may be times this could be appropriate, especially if we are not sure about the prompting of the Spirit, but when the Spirit compels we must follow. That old saying from a television show of the past, “Father knows best”, so when the Spirit says to do or go we know he knows what is best for our lives. Now of course he may say stay for I have sent you where you are. The point is we need to be wherever the Spirit has compelled us to be. We have to do whatever the Spirit compels us to do. The key word here is obedience.