The Holy Ghost Is A Better Driver Than You

Once, when I was living in Boone, North Carolina, a friend collected me with his truck. This college town has quite a few steep residential streets, to say the least. We drove off to find a pick up game of basketball in one of Appalachian State’s gyms.

“I need to make a stop before we play,” my friend told me. “My boss and his wife are out of town and I’m dog-sitting.”

He drove up a winding street to a small parking lot, and I saw a set of fancy condos. The view from up here was stunning. Fall was in season. My friend went inside to take care of business, returned quickly, and we headed for the gym. I noticed that he was not going out of the parking lot the same way we had come; he was going to the rear of the lot, toward that perfect autumn vista.

He was talking to me as he drove. I wasn’t listening. Because to me, it appeared that he was about to send us over the edge of a hundred-foot cliff. I yelled to make him be quiet and maybe spare our lives. “Hey… Hey!… Hey-HEY-HEY!”

“What’s wrong with you?” he said, not braking.

Then I saw that there was a small paved street back there, totally invisible from the lot, curving around the “cliff”, and reconnecting with the road. The truck did a deep, smooth dip onto this one-lane back street. No problem at all. I remember eating my fist.

After it dawned on my friend what I had been screaming about, he was not capable of playing basketball very well. Because every time he looked at my face for the rest of the day, he laughed so hard, he cried.

That memory came back to me this week, as I struggled with the things of this world. I realized that I was receiving a message. The Holy Spirit whispered, Stop worrying. Just let me drive.

Galatians 3:11 mentions that the just shall live by faith, and that they would become as Abraham… Abraham, whose faith was counted as righteousness.

This occurred in Genesis 15:6, which is when Abraham was born again.  Paul said in Romans 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.“

According to the Bible, the Lord doesn’t want our best. It is Christ’s best put to our account. For the true Christ follower, there should be some evidence of good works after this justification, after being born again and saved. But we don’t have to worry about being perfect– it is about being made perfect.

Sometimes when we are anxious about the future, we want to control things. To us, it seems that the Holy Spirit is sending us to a task that is beyond our abilities… or beneath. It seems that He is about to send us into the valley, headfirst. We want to take over the steering and the pedals. Doesn’t matter that the One currently driving is unfathomably better at it.

God makes a promise to justify the heathen through faith. Same as he promised Abraham, when He said, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

The Lord was reminding me of something. He is simply saying, “Relax, kid. I’m driving, not you.”

Why There Is No Need For Alarm

And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

–Matthew 6:27

When I was a teenager, reading Matthew 6, I tried to imagine growing an entire cubit in one night. Couldn’t quite picture it. And I was not alone. In his book Truth Be Told, Pastor Fred Gorini admits that some years ago, he had misinterpreted this verse. Of course, I knew that Bible scholars teach that a cubit was about eighteen inches… Nevertheless, reading it the way Jesus said it, would not make sense… One inch? Yes, maybe somehow, someone could gain one inch. Certainly not eighteen inches! Why would Jesus use such an outrageous illustration?

Obviously, He was speaking not of physical growth, but of stature and money.

Jesus told the people worrying about the elite was of no use. It’s easy to identify the status giants today. In Christ’s time, they were scribes, lawyers, and Pharisees. Gorini writes, He was doing what Caleb had done some long years ago… Giving a good report.

Stop, if we can, and look around at where we are today. Admit, if we can, that our most popular icons are opposed to God… to the people of God. The spiritual attack begins in the crib, is global, and never shuts off.

A Christian can feel very much like a grasshopper in the face of today’s giants. There is a fine line between awareness and discouragement. The believer is told to be wise as a serpent, yet innocent as a dove. At times, for some, this will get unbalanced.

One Christian might spend more time unpacking the meaning of today’s events, trying to decipher who the Antichrist might be, than reading the Bible. Another could enjoy playing church with churchfolk all week, their music ministry more a performance than worship, separated from the people that God loves and wants to save. The command is, Be not conformed to this world. But, for now, we are still living here.

***

Knowing it all is overrated. I was about sixteen when I looked up from Malcolm X’s autobiography and said to my mother out of the blue, “The more you know, the more depressed you get.” She just laughed at me and walked away. I’d stumbled upon the truth found in Ecclesiates 12:14. Much study wearies the flesh.

The key is to be encouraged and to truly walk the walk. The only thing that a believer really needs to know is: When we walk in the Spirit, the Lord Himself guarantees we won’t be put to shame. That is a huge promise. Is it even possible? The Bible says, Yes.

ABOVE IMAGE: Heb 13:5 in the Greek language
SOURCE: Biblos Interlinear Bible

“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” No wonder that Hebrews 13:5 has been said to contain the most precious double negatives in the Bible. Apparently, it’s most difficult to negate something in the Greek language more strongly, than Heb. 13:5.

We don’t get the full effect in English, but the original words tell the believer that there is absolutely no way, no, not ever, that God will fail one of His children. Again, the question: Can that really be true? We should test the Lord and see.

***

Who was Caleb? He gave a good report when other observers gave bad reports. The Book of Numbers recounts how he and Joshua tried to encourage the people. They actually said that the people of the land (the giants) would be as bread (food) for them, as they acted in faith to possess the land, Gorini writes. But the people were caught up in the web of fear and worry.

Caleb’s good report was in the minority. As one pastor said, The majority is not always right. The majority said, “We can’t”… You will find in every group a small minority who will say, “We can do it.”

That is why there is no need for the believer to be alarmed at current events. The Christ follower doesn’t win by attacking or outwitting the giants and their strongholds. The victory is in the faith itself. It is in resting in the Spirit.

This is a difficult word to digest. Especially when our faith is shaken. But St. Paul said it: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. He still felt so strongly after a lifetime of trials. He had overcome the world with faith. The encouraging part: Paul had no choice but to do this one morning at a time, just like us.