I spent my summers in college working for the Otero County Electric Co-op. OCEC was responsible for the hundreds of thousands miles of electric lines woven throughout part of rural New Mexico. I spent most of those summer days on the road with the two engineers, trying to find spots where someone needed new electrical lines brought to a new house or a new business.
Back then, our only tool for locating roads or places were the thick books of maps placed in each company pickup truck. They showed almost every dirt road and gravel path in the county. But they also often missed things. New roads were always being built. New subdivisions were always popping up. There were many afternoons when we’d be lost, trying to find a spot that simply wasn’t on the map.
These days many of us have in our phones a far better tool–GPS navigation. Those digital maps are constantly being updated. And you get voice direction moment by moment telling you where to go and how to proceed. What a remarkably more beneficial experience it is to have navigation rather than just maps!
Many approach spirituality as if all we have are maps. We have the Bible as the great map. There are so many topics and circumstances covered by it. So much of the landscape of our lives can be explored by it.
Still, we can often find ourselves wondering about the topics and circumstances it doesn’t cover. We may ponder what to do about specific decisions or specific contexts which no book or letter in the Bible seems to directly address.
What the Bible itself envisions when it comes to spirituality is an experience less like having a stack of maps and more like having GPS navigation. Jesus and his followers envisioned spirituality as an experience of ongoing, moment by moment guidance on the journey. Guidance that was specific to present circumstances. Guidance that was not general in nature but that was tailored to each person or group. Guidance that was up to date and up to the moment.
Just consider these Scriptures:
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (Jn. 14:26 ESV)
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. (Jn. 16:13 ESV)
11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Lk. 12:11-13)
And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” (Acts 8:29 ESV)
And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. (Acts 10:19 ESV)
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (Acts 13:2 ESV)
And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. (Acts 16:6)
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22)
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Rev. 22:17)
We read these texts and they may seem abnormal. But while we may think of this as extraordinary, the Bible calls it ordinary. We have been invited into a living relationship with God in which direction and instruction and navigation are provided in updated and up to the moment ways. This is one of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit. The Christian faith is not merely one that asserts that “God has spoken” by his Bible in the past, but one that also exclaims “God is speaking” by his Spirit in the present. We don’t just have maps. With the Spirit we’ve got GPS navigation.
