Being Compelled

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

BEING COMPELLED

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

First, we must come to terms with being compelled by the Spirit. Paul was a man who was driven to testify to the gospel of God’s grace. Of course, Paul had an extraordinary experience when Jesus appeared to him in that bright light, which none of his traveling companions saw, however, they did hear a voice, who was Jesus speaking to Saul. Since his conversion, he has been compelled by the Spirit in all he has done and places he has gone. We remember the time he wanted to go into a region and the Spirit would not allow him. This is the life of a believer, or at least it should be. Do we live and act as though we are compelled by the Spirit? Did the Spirit only work that way in Paul’s life? How can that been since we know that God does not change and the Spirit is God, therefore, He does not change and therefore we must conclude that it is the Spirit’s desire that we are compelled by him to do the task which we have been called to do as well as go where he is compelling us to go. This could be opposed to our own will of wanting to do and go in meeting our own desires. For the most part, do we want to live according to our own choices in life? Have we taken liberty about choices because we believe that God has given us a free will? But that freedom is about whether we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Once we made the free choice to follow Jesus and we were baptized in the Spirit, then He has come to dwell within us. Does he just dwell within us be a tag alone, or is his dwelling for the purpose of leading us into all truth? Because he wants to lead us, then we must pay close attention to his voice within and then we would understand want being compelled is all about. Are we in the place he has compelled us to be? Are in the local church he has compelled us to be? Are we ministering according to his compulsion, or are doing everything according to our will? The second question that comes to us is whether we consider our life nothing compared to accomplishing that which God has called us to, or as Paul put it, finishing the race. This would fly in the face of the normal life in our current culture where at a certain age, we feel the need to retire, sitting back to relax? How can anyone retire from the compelling of the Spirit? How can we consider our life worth more than finishing the race, which would mean that age matters not, but only that we finish the race. We cannot image any other finishing line other than our stepping into the presence of our Lord, after our last breath. This would then lead us to believe that we must always be aware of the compelling work of the Spirit within us.