Hyper-vigilance to the Spirit

If you’re out driving on a route that you’ve done many times before, you can relax and enjoy the journey because you know the road and you know where you’re going.

However, when you find yourself driving in a new place, you have to be in a state of hypervigilance: checking signs and road markings. You’ve got to be on the ball!

I believe God wants us right now to be in a hyper-vigilant state to His Spirit. Why? Because we need to journey into new places. 

When Joshua was leading the Israelites into a new place – the promised land – this was the call that was sent out:

‘When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.’ (Joshua 3:3-4)

The Israelites had to wait for the ark to move before they took a step. If they tried to go on their own, they would get lost because they don’t know exactly where they are going.

We need to grow in sensitivity to where God is moving, how He is moving, and how quickly He is moving so that we can follow. We need to get comfortable with not fully knowing all the details of where He is taking us. If we were familiar with everything, it wouldn’t be new!

There is a temptation to want to flip into autopilot and rely on what we know because it’s more comfortable and it takes less energy and attention. But autopilot is not going to get us to new places.

We need hyper-vigilance to the Spirit of God. We need to wait on Him to see where and how He is moving, then take a step in that direction.