Trust The Spirit

My son has been struggling with planning out his future and what to do with college majors. This is a pretty typical place to be for high school seniors, but he questioned my response which was to trust the Spirit.

To some of you that sounds like foolishness; to some of you it sounds too scary. To my son he wasn’t sure where the Spirit was guiding him. I shared with him an infamous mom story.

I was sitting in my developmental psychology course my sophomore year of college in Duluth, MN. As I sat there, I suddenly knew that I needed to be in Minneapolis the next year. As soon as class was over, I walked straight to the Registrar’s office and put in for a transfer. I didn’t think twice about it. I went back to my apartment and told my roommates the plan. They, of course, looked at me like I was nuts. I explained that I didn’t know why I needed to be there, but I’ll find out when I get there. I trusted the Spirit.

The question I always get is how do you know it’s the Spirit’s leading. I have always trusted my intuition which I believe is the Spirit guiding as this scripture describes.

12-15 “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you. Everything the Father has is also mine. That is why I’ve said, ‘He takes from me and delivers to you.’ (John 16:13-15 MSG).

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. (Romans 8:14 NIV).

I do believe we have some guiding questions we can ask ourselves as we try to discern our next steps.

  • Does this fit with the character of God (loving, kind, filled with grace etc)?
  • Is my body giving me clues? Sometimes I have had overwhelming sense of peace come over me, and sometimes I get a chill that runs down my spine.
  • Have I consulted wise counsel? It’s important to have people in our lives who are mature in their faith walk to help guide us.

During the summer after my sophomore year, someone asked me if I was going to apply for a local youth ministry position. A chill went down my spine, and I knew this was why I had moved back to the metro area.

I learned to trust the Spirit, young. Over the years, it has been more challenging to discern; the situations have become more complicated. However, those guiding questions have always served me well. I pray they will do the same for you, as well.

How have you learned to trust? Share your experience here and breathe life and bring hope to others.

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