Walk Thru the Book of John: Encountering a Surprising Savior...Continued from page 1

We often face similar tension between the Spirit and the status quo today—individually and corporately. The issue we have to deal with is how to determine when something is from God and when it isn't. And, as with the early opponents of Sunday school, our perception of what God is doing might be too narrow. We have to be more than knowledgeable about the Word; we have to be sensitive to the Spirit who breathed it.

How can we do that? For starters, we can ask the Holy Spirit to make us sensitive to His work and His ways—even when He defies our expectations. God is innovative, creative, and always breathing new life into his people. When we assume that the "new life" He breathes is going to follow the blueprint of his past works, we get into trouble. God is much too creative to do the same thing the same way again and again and again. He is always stretching us—just as Jesus stretched the minds and hearts of those who encountered Him.

Second, while we value what we've learned in the past about God and His ways, we need to live with anticipation of learning more. God is always shedding new light on people who have received past revelation with acceptance and faith. He doesn't leave us to stagnate. When we decided to follow Him, we implicitly committed to be repeatedly surprised and to live with a sense of wonder. We may not have known it at the time, but an adventure was beginning. In laying down our old life and accepting new life in Jesus, we gave up our right to any sense of predictability.

Finally, we need to learn to withhold judgment against what God may or may not be doing in someone else's life until we've seen the fruit—and sometimes that comes much, much later. Unlike ancient Israel, who stoned prophets in the present and honored them later, we need to let God do his work in our lives and the lives of others without judging it too soon.

When our hearts are sensitive to God in these ways, His Spirit can open our eyes, deepen our relationship with Him, and take us places we never thought we would go. In our openness to His work, we encounter Him in surprising ways. And we avoid the mistake many God-fearing people throughout history have inadvertently made. We recognize the times of our visitation.

Adapted from A Walk Thru the Book of John: Encountering a Surprising Savior, a small group study guide from Walk Thru the Bible and Baker Books.

This small group study and others can be found at www.walkthruguides.org.