The Holy Spirit, our teacher

If your heart is motivated by the approval of others and it influences the way you live, your loyalty is shared. You will always fight to please someone other than Jesus.

Some years after the Apostle Paul converted, he went to the Jerusalem church to try to join the disciples who were there : "but all feared him, not believing that he was a disciple" ( Acts 9:26).

The apostles knew Paul's reputation as a persecutor. The churches of Judea had only heard that : "He who formerly persecuted us now announces the faith which he then tried to destroy" (Galatians 1:23). But Barnabas helped the apostles to bypass their fear of Paul and they offered him communion. Paul decided to travel among the heathen and he described with care and clarity his call, explaining that he came "not from men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised the dead" (Galatians 1: 1).

Then Paul added emphatically : "I declare to you, brethren, that the gospel which was spoken by me is not of the man ; for I have neither received nor heard from a man, but by a revelation of Jesus Christ... immediately I consulted neither flesh nor blood" (Galatians 1: 11-12,16).

What Paul says here applies to all who desire to have the mind of Christ : "I did not need to read books or refer to human methods to get what I have. I received my message, my ministry and my anointing on my knees.

"These things came to me as I spent time alone with the Lord, interceding and fasting. All the revelations I've had from Christ come from the Holy Spirit, who resides in me and leads my life. I can not afford to follow the trends and methods of others."

Paul was not a proud and arrogant teacher. He had emptied himself of all ambition and allowed the Holy Spirit to become his teacher !

David Wilkerson