08/31/2025
The Corporate Discipline of Guidance
This is another discipline that goes against the grain of our independent-minded and self-centered culture. We rightly think that God has given each of us the indwelling Holy Spirit who is the very presence of Jesus in us, and that one of his roles is to guide us. In John chapter 14 Jesus says to his disciples, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-the Spirit of truth…you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” And in chapter 16 he continues the dialogue with the disciples, saying, “Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you…when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
This promised Holy Spirit guidance certainly operates in us individually as is vividly illustrated in Acts 8:29 where we read, “The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”” We note that there doesn’t seem to be anything corporate about this at all. Philip, without any other Christians around giving him advice, gets a direct word from God with very specific guidance about what he is supposed to do.
But that is not the total picture of how God operates giving guidance through the workings of the Holy Spirit. Further along, in the 13th chapter of the book of Acts, while a number of the early church’s leaders were gathered together for corporate worship they experienced the Holy Spirit giving group guidance. We read, “While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” We note that the guidance given through the speaking of the Holy Spirit is just as direct as the guidance given individually to Philip earlier in Acts. But we also note that this has to do with the directions for what this particular group was to do in setting apart two of their members for a special task. God gives group guidance for group action.
We see this happening again in the 15th chapter of the book of Acts on an even larger scale. The church leadership gathered in Jerusalem to sort out what God was doing in bringing together Jews and Gentiles in the church, and exactly what he required of the Gentile Christians in regard to keeping Jewish ceremonial rituals and their identity as the people of God. After much discussion and the remembering together what God had recently been doing among them, they came to unity in their deciding what to do going forward. The Holy Spirit had given them group guidance so they could move forward in unity of action. It is interesting to note the language they used in putting down their conclusion in written form to be shared with the rest of the disciples who had not been able to make the meeting. They wrote, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us….” They felt that they had experienced group guidance from the Holy Spirit. They had discerned the will of God for them in and for that particular moment of history. The guidance was direct and the action they took was communal.
There is a second kind of experience of Corporate Guidance that at first glance will not look like Corporate Guidance. It has to do with having a spiritual director. This is another idea that runs contrary to the thinking of many Christians in our culture. They feel that they are only accountable, spiritually speaking, to God and they don’t need anyone else. For some, the term spiritual director brings to mind thoughts of monasteries and convents, and fears of being boxed in or controlled by distasteful rules. Perhaps a less threatening term would be mentor. A mentor is someone who gives help, advice, and/or training to someone who is less experienced in some shared field of mutual pursuit. To consider the possibility of having a spiritual director or mentor, requires humility. We have to be willing to admit that there is always someone out there in the corporate body of Christ that is more spiritually advanced than we. There is someone out there that, in some ways, can know us better than we know ourselves, someone who God has gifted in that way so that they can be personally involved with us in helping us to be more like Jesus.
Examples of the spiritual director relationship have been preserved for us in the Word of God. An Old Testament standout example of this can be seen in the Elijah-Elisha relationship. In 2 Kings the 2nd chapter we get a little glimpse of what that relationship was like. It was a relationship in which the director was one who was respected by the one who was being directed. Elisha, who was the one being directed, was seen by others, as being in a master-follower relationship with Elijah. Elijah is presented also as being a Spiritual father to Elisha. And Elisha is portrayed as wanting to inherit the spiritual stuff that Elijah has.
In the New Testament Paul’s relationship as spiritual director of other individual’s is on display in his letters to Timothy and to Titus. Paul presents himself as being a spiritual father to these two individuals. He knew these men personally. He knew their weaknesses and their strengths. They were involved in ministry together with Paul. Paul knew where they needed further instruction and advice and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he freely gave it to them.
Part of chasing after God has to do with finding the humility and faith to believe that God will give us guidance through our relationship with others in the body of Christ. We need to believe this will happen both in a group context and in our relationship with particular individuals. God dares us to put aside our spiritual pride and accept that he will choose to speak to us words of guidance not only directly through the Holy Spirit living in us, but also through the Holy Spirit living in other imperfect, broken, followers of Christ.
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