To Flow in the Spirit, There Must Be Intimacy

Therefore I was angry with this generation, and said, “They always go astray in their heart; and they did not know My ways.” —Hebrews 3:10, NAS

You get to know a person’s ways by spending time with them. My wife, Louise, and I have been married for over forty-five years. I know her ways, and she knows mine. When we are asked a question or receive an invitation, we almost always know what the other will say. God wants us to know Him like that.

Flowing in the Spirit means to honor God’s “no” as well as His “yes.” Paul and his companions were “kept by the Holy Spirit” (“forbidden,” KJV) from preaching the word in the province of Asia (Acts 16:6). Really? Are we to believe that the Holy Spirit—not the devil—would actually stop people from preaching the gospel? It seems to me that this would take both supernatural discernment and considerable courage to act on a word from the Spirit like that. This seems to fly in the face of our mandate to preach the gospel to every person (Mark 16:15). How did they know? I only know they listened to the Spirit and obeyed. It must have taken as much courage to obey not to preach as it did to preach.

To flow in the Spirit is to have intimacy with Him and to feel what He wants. It is to learn God’s ways, His style, His manner of doing things, His way with people, His gentleness, His indignation, His impulses. In other words, do what pleases the Spirit and what He prompts you to do. God wants us to know His ways; it is as though God admits to having a certain kind of personality. God wants intimacy with us, and there is no greater joy than to keep in step with the Spirit.

Excerpted from Believing God (MorningStar Publications & Ministries, 1997).