Enthroning Common Sense

Excellent message last night at Immanuel.  Pastor Geo spoke about the purposes of the Holy Spirit. 

1. To Guide
2. To Equip
3. To Enable

A great example is in Acts 16.  In verse 6 we see that the Holy Spirit guided Paul and his companions away from ministering in Asia.  Instead they were sent Macedonia. 

On the way they met Lydia.  It says in verse 14 that the Lord opened her heart (enabled her) to respond to Paul's message. 

In verses 16-18 it talks about Paul meeting a demon possessed girl.  We see the equipping of the Holy Spirit when Paul commands the demon to leave by the power of the Most High God. 

Unfortunately it did not go so well for them after that.  The owners of this slave girl were furious and started an attack against them.  They were stripped, severely flogged, and thrown in prison (vv 19-24).

At this point, I'd probably be thinking that I made a mistake.  That I misunderstood the prompting of God.   I'd have a mental list of all the reasons I should've gone somewhere else. 

In My Utmost For His Highest this morning, Oswald Chambers talked about this very thing.  "Never enthrone common sense.  Common sense never yet detected the Father.  We have to see that this mortal flesh is kept in perfect subjection to Him and that He works through it moment by moment." 

Have you ever decided to do something just because it seemed like the right thing to do?  There was nothing wrong with it? 

I want to be at a place where I call upon the Holy Spirit for guidance and not just my own thinking.   Dethroning common sense as it were.

I love the next part.

Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.  (v 25) 

I don't know about you, but songs wouldn't be on my lips in the middle of the night after I was naked and beaten and thrown in jail w/o any hope of anything better.  But Paul and Silas were filled with the Holy Spirit and He enabled them to praise and look heavenward. 

Oswald Chambers says this, " Our ordinary wits never worship God unless they are transfigured by the indwelling Son of God." 

Isn't that true? 

The chapter goes on to record the famous story of the earthquake and the salvation of the jailer. 
"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.  You and your household."  Acts 16:31

Beautiful!  Guiding, enabling, and equipping.   And all because they were sensitive to the Spirit's leading.


Lord, please help me to stop relying on my own wits and to depend entirely on the Holy Spirit.  Amen.