It is God’s nature to lead His people in ministry. He is large. He is in charge. Our nature is to seek to take control from God. Thus there is a natural conflict. If we hope to function effectively in evangelism we must allow the Holy Spirit to lead us.
In our desire to see people come to Christ we can grow impatient and step out of alignment with God. It is easy to grow dull of hearing and simply become disinterested in listening to the Holy Spirit’s voice in ministry. I have met numbers of veteran evangelism leaders who poo-poo the idea of being led by the Holy Spirit in outreach because they grew impatient long ago on asking God in connecting with outreach. They usually see such notions as excuses for not doing outreach. I disagree.
Instead of hearing from the Spirit, we trade for inferior voices. We grow accustomed to our voice and those of our friends or Board members. Those voices consistently drown out the Gentle Voice that leads. Those other voices are easy to discern. They push. They sometimes threaten with the withholding of favor or hope or capacity. God’s voice, even when He brings correction, brings hope and passion. He speaks from a proactive perspective.
“Move forward! Take that risk! Do that outreach! Pray that prayer.” He gives us encouragement and specific instruction. There is nothing wrong with your current outreach setting that a decent conversation with God will not improve greatly. Start with a prolonged time of listening to Big God.
