Our greatest guide is not our education. It’s not our wisdom. It’s not our experience. It’s not our intuition. It’s not our knowledge. It’s not our reasoning. Our greatest guide is the Holy Spirit – the third member of the trinity. Oftentimes, we find ourselves in a difficult situation that calls for a decision. We look up to Heaven and ask for guidance from our Father. Yet, we often forget that our Father sent a Helper to live inside of us and guide us in literally everything that we do.

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” – John 15:26-27

            This Helper is by far the best Guide we could ever hope for. Sometimes the most educated and practical decisions can lead us down roads that result in poor consequences. These decisions can follow us for the rest of our lives. The truth of the matter is that even in all our wisdom and cleverness, we are imperfect human beings prone to fault. God on the other hand has unlimited understanding and He can see the road ahead while we cannot.

 “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron,” – Isaiah 45:2

            The Holy Spirit will speak to us if we let him. Sometimes it’s just a whisper, or a light tug on our heart telling us not to go a certain way. Other times it feels like a burden lifted and dropped upon your heart like an anchor. You feel a great urgency telling you to STOP or GO or DO and so forth.

“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” – Genesis 12:1

            I can tell you one such time that the Holy Spirit spoke to me. I had recently made a new friend many many years ago. We clicked right away and got along really well. We developed a decent friendship, but our friendship was still new and fresh. So, there was much to learn about each other. After some time, we got into a disagreement over something childish. We were young and we were naive. We stopped being friends deciding to go our separate ways. All of my reason said it was the logical choice. I felt totally justified in my decision.

            But God had other plans. I felt like a stone dropped on my heart. I felt this urgency to make things right despite how I saw the situation. I immediately knew that the Holy Spirit was talking to me. Yet I was stubborn. I didn’t want to be the one to try and make things right with this friend. I felt he was in the wrong, so I struggled against that tugging for a while. Eventually, it got overwhelming, and I couldn’t think about much else.

I turned to God knowing I couldn’t keep on ignoring the tug. “Alright God,” I said. “I’ll try to make things right.”

            When I said that, I had no intention of apologizing. I was going to smooth things over and just keep in contact somewhat. To my surprise, it was as clear as day what God responded to me.

“You don’t understand now but one day you will. Apologize even if you feel you are in the right. This isn’t just about right and wrong. I have a plan you just can’t see it yet.”

            So, I obeyed and chose to be led by the Spirit. That was 20 something years ago. Had I listened to my own reasoning rather than the Holy Spirit, I would not be writing this blog. Maybe you are facing a difficult decision right now. Maybe you don’t know what you should do. Maybe you reading this is God reminding you that you aren’t alone, and you have a Helper to ask.

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” – John 3:8