Holy Spirit as Guidance System

This week's verses are Acts 20:22-24:

And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem without knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit warns me in town after town that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me. But I do not consider my life worth anything to myself, so that I may finish my task and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace.

This week's verses are Paul saying goodbye to the church at Ephesus before heading off to Jerusalem. There are a few interesting things in what he says. First that he is "compelled" or "bound" by the Holy Spirit. Second that the Holy Spirit has warned him about a rather grisly fate that awaits him. And Third that his faith and ministry are so valuable to him that a supernatural assurance that he will be in serious danger seems a perfectly reasonable price to pay for what he's got.

How often do we hear from people that the Holy Spirit has compelled them to do something? We hear "the devil made me do it," but we don't often think of the Holy Spirit as being able to make people do stuff. I don't mean it in the sense of taking over your body and making you do it, but as the sort of compulsion that comes from love. Like in the movies where two people have feelings for one another and one of them is like "I have to move to Alaska. Will you come with me?" It's not kidnapping or a threat, but there's still a compulsion. The argument for "yes" is so overwhelming that "no" is difficult to consider.

We hear about the Holy Spirit, but how often do we hear that someone is bound to follow it to another town, enticed or compelled to do what the Spirit wants, regardless of the cost and consequences? Are people really that serious in their faith anymore? Is our relationship with God that serious? Are we "all in" on that relationship, emotionally invested, to the point where it is unimaginable to be where the Spirit is not?

But along with being pulled, Paul is also warned about imprisonment and persecutions. This isn't a night or two in some modern prison with clean facilities and guards who are more or less bound to treat you humanely, as a formality for getting rounded up in a protest. The prisons in Paul's day were often a hole in the ground guarded by sadists or people who would themselves be killed if they didn't keep you in line. There were no "three hots and a cot." You slept on the ground and any food you got was charity.

And persecution wasn't just getting fired from your job and deplatformed. Mob justice was a thing in Paul's day and Paul was on the business end of those vigilante mobs more than once. These things the Holy Spirit was warning him about were serious issues.

But look at the romantic movie plot again: What if the person leaving was like "If I had to leave town, would you follow me? It won't be easy. You'll miss your family. You'll have a hard time finding work. People will attack you for being with me and try to hurt you." Would the person leaving hide that from their lover if they really loved them? And would the lover be dissuaded from following if they really loved in return? What person who truly loves says "oh, well if my career might suffer, I guess our relationship is over. Have a nice trip."

So Paul is saying that he's all-in on his decision to follow God. His life and his comfort are not enough to dissuade him from following the God he loves. Hardship is a small price to pay in comparison with the joy of doing the right thing. He is devoted and his devotion allows him to be guided by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit provides guidance in the sense of warnings, but it also provides guidance in the sense of an invitation to follow. Kind of like how your GPS tells you the route to take but also warns you of traffic conditions and construction. Is that something you'd like in your life? How do you think you might get that kind of relationship? Going to a get together once or twice a week? A quick ten or fifteen minute conversation every now and then? How do you get depth in a relationship, where you can say anything to each other? Where you'll follow each other anywhere? You have to put in the time, right?

If you'd like that, invest some more time in devotion. Prayer, study, fasting, worship, etc. Not as a payment to buy God's favor but for the same reasons as you would invest in an important human relationship. To get to the point where all hardship seems like nothing, where the Spirit tells you all you need to know and more, you've got to spend some time with God and share some experiences.