Ben Sternke

Field notes on life and mission with God after Christendom

Holy Spirit

What Will You Actually Do About It?

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(This post, like the last one, was co-written with my wife Deb, who also leads huddles and coaches leaders, and is generally awesome.)

As we mentioned in the last post, the two questions we are asking when we lead others in huddle (a discipling vehicle for training leaders in the way of Jesus) are:

  • What is God saying to you?
  • What are you going to do about it?

Last time we dealt with the common struggle of actually hearing what God is saying to you (instead of simply jumping to a plan out of a sense of guilt or expedience). Today we’ll deal with the other question – the common struggle of responding concretely to what God is saying.

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What is God Actually Saying To You?

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(This post was co-written with my wife Deb, who also leads discipleship groups and coaches leaders, and is generally awesome.)

The two essential questions we are asking others when we are leading people in a discipleship group are:

  • What is God saying to you?
  • What are you going to do about it?

However, here’s what we find many times: when we ask “What is God saying to you?” the response starts with “I think I just need to _____.” See that? They jumped to “What are you going to do about it?” and skipped the actual articulation of “What is God saying to you?” This is a very common struggle. People will either skip right to their plan of action or default to talking about what they should be doing.

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Do We Actually Trust the Holy Spirit?

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From my previous post (reflections on the triumphal entry):

Even among his disciples, though, there was an incredibly high level of misunderstanding about what kind of king he was, and what was going to happen in Jerusalem. In this aspect, Jesus displayed a tremendous trust in the Holy Spirit to bring his disciples into “all truth” after his resurrection and ascension.

If I were Jesus, I think I’d be a bit worried. His disciples, who have been with him the whole time, learning about the kingdom of God, still don’t get it. They have been personally mentored by the Son of God for three years, and on the eve of his crucifixion, they’re still arguing about who will be Secretary of State when Jesus kicks out the Romans and restores the glory-days of Israel. He’s entrusting his movement to these people?

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