Lesson 61 – When the Spirit Is Wrongly Accused

1 Kings 18:12

"And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from you, that the Spirit of the Lord will carry you to a place I do not know, so when I go and tell Ahab, and he cannot find you, he will kill me."

    While King Ahab's second in command feared the one true God, having proving it by hiding 100 prophets from destruction by Queen Jezebel, Obadiah also proved to have a misfounded understanding in the way the Spirit accomplishes God's will.

    Let me explain. As one who served as the closest assistant of an evil, but cowardly king, Obadiah had grown used to the devious practices of men, that he wrongly believed the Spirit would assist Elijah in deceiving Ahab. In a sense, Obadiah accuses God of acting in the same ungodliness as people.

    But this was a misplaced fear. The Spirit's touch upon those of the world is never in a way in which the Spirit joins humanity in rebellious acts against the plans of God. In fact, the Spirit works in just the opposite way, for it is the Spirit who is at work in the world today accomplishing God's will through the Church of believers.

    Unfortunately, some believers still act as if the Spirit can't be trusted. Sometimes, we don't pray for God's will to be done, because we're afraid of what God might choose to try to do through us. We act as if the Spirit can't be trusted when we refuse to believe God's revealed word. Instead of interpreting it through the Spirit's touch, we read the Bible and base our understanding of it based on our own experiences and welfare. We also act as if the Spirit can't be trusted when we try to orchestrate events according to our own wishes, reading circumstances wrongly as a green light from God to go our own way.

    In all these ways, even believers get caught up in accusing the Spirit of being untrustworthy. That's just not the way it is. Whenever God acts as Spirit, he can be trusted, and our only rightful response is belief and obedience.

LORD JESUS

Lord, I thank you for the trustworthiness of your Spirit upon your Church. May we listen to you, believe you, and obey you in every touch. Amen.