[aron]

Originally Posted by Peter Debelak

This, to some extent, is a Local Church-ism. Someone's made a decision - perhaps even controversial. Their safe guard is that the "lord led them" to do such-and-such.

I have read this here recently, even by former members. And I have employed this phrase myself, even recently. But what, exactly, does it mean and what should we take from it when others evoke it?

In the context of "Local Church-ism" I think we should take the phrase with some scepticism. Because it is a convenient crutch for unexamined assumptions which may be flawed, even fatal. Like it's a way to avoid the ramifications of our own motives and thinking. The enemy loves to hide, and the unexamined life leads to behaviors that are deeply circumscribed in capacity to really cooperate with God.

Jesus told Peter, "You are young and strong and go wherever you want to go. But eventually others will bind you and take you away, to a place where you really don't want." In actuality, Peter was being driven by "others" all along. The "you go wherever you want" was actually indicating forces, ingrained and insinuated within Peter, driving him, apart from God. Eventually these would be manifested as what they really were, as "others", when the story finally played itself out. The trick is to identify these "others" early in the game, while we are still relatively young and strong. A deathbed confession is better than no confession at all, but how much of God's leading have we missed!

He has led me time and again. I have understood that leading WRONG time and again. I have ignored that leading time and again. But He HAS led me. My humility to listen to those I don't automatically accept is a blessing to test my presumed "leading."

Without this kind of self-doubt and humility before Him, the kind of bravado of "He led me to..." of the Local Church can become an unconscious manipulative element. Not because of ill motives, but because it is not based in personal humility.

Multiple, repeated, over-and-over again failures lead to some circumspection, some self-awareness of these subtle forces within, always lurking in darkened corners and waiting to emerge in some guise of "serving God". Jesus taught this: "People will kill you and think that they are doing service to God." How many times have I gone around (figuratively) killing people and thinking I was doing some beneficial thing! Look at how God's adversary is introduced into the narrative: "Now the serpent was more subtle than all the beasts of the field". Adam could see and name everything else, but couldn't identify the serpent 'till it bit him. The serpent will try to put something into you, often under the guise of a "Word from God", and if you don't examine it, it's to your peril.

Psalm 91 says of the Christ, "He will give His angels charge over you, lest you should strike your foot against a stone." True, but the devil's logic tries to get Jesus to jump (Matt 4:5-11). So the subtle one will take truth and try to do a jujitsu move and flip you with it. He will use your strength against you. All those books Watchman Nee had read couldn't save him from his concept of a "normal Church". And I'm not picking on Nee; I am surely as bad, or worse, in many regards. My repeated failures have made this one point plain to me.

So that's the Debbie downer part. The good part, to me, is that Psalm 1 starts out with a "not". Psalm 1 starts with a blessing, not a curse, but the blessing is to those who do not. Do not go in the way of the wicked. In other words, your blessing is not in what you do, but in what you don't do. Before you move, make sure you have "crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts", as Paul put it. Or, more correctly, make sure you realize that God has crucified you with Christ. Don't move, don't think, don't feel, don't plan, don't react, don't act. You are finito, kaput, finished, over, done.

At some point, as you "wait there in Jerusalem for the promise of the coming Holy Spirit", you will be awakened and placed on your feet. It may be a subtle stirring of the breeze through the leaves, gently rustling and whispering (1 Kings 19:12; John 3:8), or it may be a mighty rushing wind out of heaven (Acts 2:2) or an earthquake (Acts 16:26). But the Lord will lead you. His arm is not to short to save you. The only question (I am speaking to and of myself, of course, when I use the word "you") is, Are you willing to get out of the way, and let God's outstretched arm reach into the situation? Or is the devil going to provoke your flesh to act, and insinuate its 'passions and lusts' into the situation?