YouTube is proof positive that we live in a show me culture. If you’re unsure of how something works or how to fix it if it’s broken, a quick search will bring up half a dozen video how-to gurus. I needed to know how to prune my fig tree last year. I found nine different videos from across the world explaining in great detail at the click of a button. I chose a little of this method and a little of that with success. Maybe this year I’ll try another altogether.
For every subject under the sun, there are self-proclaimed experts who have built their followings on numbers of views and likes alongside highly educated professionals. How do you choose who to follow? My husband’s favorites in golf and fishing populate his history. My recents are entirely Christian music artists and the occasional church service. You can study a foreign language or French cuisine, train for a marathon, or change the oil in your lawnmower, and if you want to learn to study the Bible, you will find a teacher in every style or personality type. So who can you trust?
My friend, Amy, called me this week as she traveled a country road under construction. One lane was scraped clean to the red clay so traffic shared the other lane alternately. Her call came In immediately after I received her text message with a photo through her windshield of a white truck bearing a large orange sign which read: Pilot Truck, Follow Me. I could hear the excitement in her voice as I listened.
Moving along at snail’s pace gave her time to reflect on the fact that she could simply dart around the pilot vehicle on the unpaved lane if she chose and arrive at her destination without further delay, but she had no way of knowing what other dangers lay ahead. The driver of the truck was part of the team repairing the roadway. Following him, though it slowed her progress, meant she would avoid any obstacles in her path, potential damage to her vehicle, and even possible fines for breaking a traffic law. She sensed God’s still, small voice whispering to her in that moment. I am the Pilot. I know you and I know what lies ahead. Don’t rush past Me. Walk with me at My pace. Trust that I have your best interests in mind and I am working all things together for good.
Do you hear from God regularly? What has He impressed upon you recently? What is He teaching you about Himself and about who you are in Him? Jesus promised His followers that God would send an Advocate, a Comforter, a Counselor- the Holy Spirit- as a sign and a guarantee in each of us after His ascension.
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.
The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him.
But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.
But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”
John 14:16-17, 26 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.14.16-26.NLT
When you read your Bible, anything that jumps off the page, makes sense to you, or comes to mind at just the right time is this promise made manifest in you. God’s Word says about itself that it is foolishness to those who do not believe for it is spiritually discerned. Without the guiding, indwelling presence of God’s own Spirit, His Word will not, in fact cannot, make sense to us.
“But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit.
It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.”
1 Corinthians 2:14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.2.14.NLT
“The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction!
But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.”
1 Corinthians 1:18 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.1.18.NLT
“You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word.
You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right.
Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.”
Hebrews 5:12-14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.5.12-14.NLT
“Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ.
I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature.
You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?
When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?
After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News.
Each of us did the work the Lord gave us.
I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.
It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.
The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.
For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.
Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?”
1 Corinthians 3:1-9, 16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.3.1-16.NLT
“Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others.
God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too.”
2 Corinthians 5:11 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.11.NLT
“Follow my example, just as I follow the example of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 11:1 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/1co.11.1.NIRV
“I want you to pattern your lives after me, just as I pattern mine after Christ.”
1 Corinthians 11:1 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/1co.11.1.TPT
As a bumper sticker I saw recently at a traffic light stated- Do you follow Jesus this closely? Show me.
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