A Nugget from New Life Network
(by Chris Musgrove of Future Now)
Scripture for the Day – October 29, 2019
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. (Psalm 119:105)
I am often asked about how I transitioned from being on staff at a church for 19 years to stepping out into full-time evangelism. These questions don’t just come from people in ministry, but business people as well. They ask questions like; how did you know it was time; did the Lord show you ahead of time; was your wife in agreement; and were you scared?
I always want to base what I tell people on what the scripture says and not just experience. Experience is alright as long as it lines up with the Word of God. John 16:13 says, “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will tell you things to come.”
How did He, the Holy Spirit, lead me? He led me just like He leads everybody else, by an inward witness.
Romans 8:14 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.”
In modern times we would say the spirit of man is the flashlight, not candle of the Lord. A lamp or a flashlight illuminates or helps you see in the dark. Well, the Holy Spirit uses our spirits to direct us so we can find our way spiritually.
The Bible says in John 4:24 that God is a Spirit and Genesis 1:27 says we were created in His image. So if God is a spirit and we were created in His image that makes us a spirit. So the real you, the spirit man on the inside of you, which I Peter 3:4 calls “the hidden man of the heart” is what God uses to lead us.
Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.” As I said before, the Holy Spirit began to speak to me before I stepped down as youth pastor. In the natural I really didn’t want to go, but somehow down on the inside of me I knew I would be leaving. I even told my pastor two years before I ever left the church, and he asked me when and why I was leaving. I told him I thought it would be a few years and that I really didn’t want to leave, but it seemed God was leading me that way. About two years later I was asked to be interim pastor at a church, and the word interim just jumped out at me. I thought to myself I can do interim and eventually transition into doing the FutureNow programs full time. After two years of being an interim pastor, we stepped out into full-time evangelism. Also, I want to add, that God will confirm with you things that He has spoken to you. After we had stepped down as youth pastors, my wife and I received the same word from two different people saying, “kill the ox and burn the plow.”
This is what Elisha did after he accepted the mantle and the call to follow Elijah in I Kings 19:21. In other words, Elisha would never go back to farming again. This confirmed to us that God was calling us out into evangelism, and we wouldn’t go back to pastoring again.
I hear His voice, He knows me, and I follow Him (John 10:27).
