One of my friends, Tony, and his wife have adopted several children. This is a burden that God placed on their hearts when they studied the book of Ephesians, learning how God had adopted them in Christ. In that book, Paul wrote,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3–6 ESV)
Tony and his wife felt like the Spirit was telling them, Just as you’ve been adopted into my family, I want you to adopt others into your family. Your life will be a picture of the gospel.
The following summer, Tony went on a mission trip to Ukraine. While there, he visited an orphanage. The director told him about a group of four siblings who had just arrived. The kids, ages 2 through 8, were about to be split up and placed in orphanages around the country—unless someone came forward to welcome all four of them into their family. The children were scared. Tony could actually see them, holding hands as if preparing to be disciplined.
And at that moment, Tony heard the Spirit say to him, “Those are your kids.” So he and his wife pursued their adoption. They added four more kids to an already full house.
For those of us in Baptist circles, a story like that may make us nervous. And not just Baptists, either. Many Christians aren’t comfortable with the confusing role of the Holy Spirit. In the church I grew up in, I often heard the joke that our “Trinity” wasn’t the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but was actually the Father, the Son, and the Holy Bible.
And yet, in Matthew, Luke, and John, Jesus emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in the Great Commission. All throughout the book of Luke, Jesus is filled with and led by the Holy Spirit. No surprise, then, that all throughout the book of Acts (also written by Luke), we find the disciples filled by and led by the Spirit too. The Holy Spirit appears 59 times in the book of Acts, and in 36 of those he is speaking—instructing, correcting, and most of all, guiding. I know that a lot of what happened in Acts was unique. But you can’t convince me that the only book God gave us with examples of how the church operates is filled with experiences of people that have nothing in common with our own.
The Spirit is still speaking. The question is, are we listening?
Jesus shows us what this looks like in action. In the book of John, he went so far as to say that he did nothing of his own power, doing only what he sees the Father doing. Even though he was the Son of God, he perceived where the Father was at work and joined him in it. If anyone could have just trusted his gut, it would have been Jesus. But even he took his marching orders from the Father, filled with the Spirit and ready to go.
If that was true of Jesus, it’s even more so for his people.
Ministry in Christ’s name is not doing great things for God; it’s figuring out where the Father is working in the lives of people around us and joining him in it. That may lead you to an act of radical faith. Or it might lead you to something completely mundane. The point is, it will lead you. You aren’t leading yourself.
This is incredibly good news. God doesn’t need us to change people’s lives for him. He doesn’t need us putting on our thinking caps to figure out the best strategies for ministry. He takes care of all that. He simply wants us to see what he’s doing and join him in that work.
This applies to us whether we’re pastors, small group leaders, parents, or insurance salesmen. It applies when we’re on a mission trip to Ukraine and when we’re sitting next to strangers at the DMV. Wherever we are, God has been there first. And he has work he intends for us to do.
We cannot persuade people to be interested in Jesus. We can only observe how the Holy Spirit might be working in someone and ask him for opportunities to join in.
One of the most effective evangelists I know once said that there are two things we must believe deep in our souls when it comes to evangelism: 1) Salvation belongs to God, and 2) faith comes only by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. If you believe the first premise, you’ll realize it’s not up to you. The pressure’s off! If you believe the second premise, you’ll realize God has given you the chance to join him while he does something amazing. The adventure awaits!
The pressure is not on us to save. Our responsibility is merely to listen, to watch—and then, when we sense God’s Spirit, to move. So, when God opens a door for us to speak the Word of God to someone, we should do it. But we do so remembering that he’s the one who has to make the Word bear fruit. That might happen at a later time, apart from us. Most of the time, in fact, it does.
Not everything from heaven has your name on it. You probably aren’t called to adopt four siblings from Ukraine. That was Tony’s assignment. But something from heaven does have your name on it. And it’s your job to discern that from the Holy Spirit.
Discern it, then diligently pursue it.
