THE “TUGGING” OF THE SPIRIT

Paul assumed that the Spirit is a very active agent in the life of the believer. For he went on to say,

Since by the qualities of the Spirit you are being led or prompted, you are not at all under law (Galatians 5:17)

What this is saying is that a partnership has been created for us by God the Father with the Holy Spirit. We are expected to take areas of our life into the Fathers presence to sort them out. As we do so the Spirit of God will be ministering to us.

Immediately someone reading this will think and maybe even say, “Certainly I feel the impact of the flesh in my life, it’s very powerful, but I not sure at all that I feel or sense the prompting of the Spirit of God.” What that person needs to remember is the flesh is a “mugger”. It just comes and starts beating us up. A beating is hard to miss. On the other hand, the spirit is a “tugger”. We may be so overwhelmed by the mugging that we miss the tugging.

Also we have to understand the two different goals that the flesh and the Spirit have. The fleshes goal is to enslave us; the goal of the Spirit is to teach us our freedom in Christ.

Some of the ”tuggings” of the Spirit may be ridiculously simple such as prompting us to pray instead of focusing on a desire, or to read the Bible instead of watching TV, or reading the newspaper or to talk to a friend instead of isolating oneself. These promptings have to come softly so that we can partner with the Spirit and participate intelligently. Possibly some may want the Spirit to show up with a bullhorn and electric cattle prod. It won’t happen, because that is how the Devil and the flesh do things but not God the Father.