Be led by the Spirit

What was it like for Jesus to walk in the spirit? Yes, our Lord had to do this because he occupied a physical body whilst on Earth.

It was the Spirit of God who led Jesus in Luke 4, to deal with the attacks of the devil after He had fasted for 40 days.

But look it Mark 5. I’m  convinced that Jesus probably didn’t know beforehand that He would:

a. face the Gadarene demoniac. A man in such a pitiful spiritual state, Which manifested mentally and physically, that he dwelt among tombs, uncontrollably self harming, unable to be tamed by anybody.

b. encounter the woman with the issue of blood, bleeding profusely for 12 years, becoming increasingly worse. Shunned and despised by everybody because she was considered unclean. Stripped of every last penny by physicians who could not heal her.

c. encounter Jairus, whose daughter - interestingly also 12 years old (the number of power, authority and completeness in the Bible) who would die by the time He reached her.

But He went where he was led.

You see, Although Jesus never sinned and he was perfect, this physical body was not perfect in the sense that it was limited. He didn’t necessarily know ahead of time what he would encounter. Although he was the son of God, his physical body was a limitation. But he was ready. Because he walked in the Spirit. There is so much in this for us. 1 John 4:17 says as he is so are we in this world. Do you know what that means? Yes, we too must be led by the Spirit of God. If Jesus needed to, much more so do we need to. Ever wondered why so much evil seems to prevail in this world? Yes, definitely a consequence of a fallen, sinful world. But it’s also partially a consequence of God’s people not realising that we are his hands and feet. Living in this physical body just as Jesus occupied a physical body, we too are to  ‘go’ just because he said so. We don’t realise all the missed chances we’ve had to comfort, encourage, heal and even to share a laugh- laughter is medicine.

As we spend time in his word let’s ask him to help us become ever more sensitive to his still quiet voice, and shut off some of those things that hinder it - He’ll help us every step of the way.

And then, let’s ‘go’.