Wednesday, May 31, 2017
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So I saw two police cars blazing down the highway, lights and sirens going strong. I thought the chances were that they didn't decide to go wherever they were going. No, the dispatcher did. All day long, an officer cruises in his car, listening to the crackle of that police radio. Then suddenly he or she hears something like this, "Unit 3, disturbance at Franklin and North Avenue. Respond immediately." And he's off! Just because the dispatcher told him to.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Tuned To The Dispatcher."
Our word for today from the Word of God, Luke 2:25-28. The scene: the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus' parents have just brought their eight-day-old baby there for the newborn rite of circumcision. Enter this elderly man. "Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, (Which really means he was waiting for the Messiah.) and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for Him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took Him in his arms and praised God."
Well, that's a pretty exciting last chapter of a guy's life. How did Simeon end up being the right man at the right place at just the right time, holding the baby Messiah in his arms? It's the same way a police officer does. He was listening to the Dispatcher. "Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts."
I want to be a Simeon - hopefully, before I'm as old as he was. Frequently, I pray, "Lord, help me be the right man at the right place at the right time, saying the right things." Now that's not something I can arrange, but the Holy Spirit can, and He will if I let Him be my Dispatcher.
God is constantly planning these heavenly convergences or Divine bump-ins, or Divine appointments. That's when you converge with a person you need or who needs you, or with the resource you've been looking for, or with some Kingdom assignment God has for you to do. Your job is to be Spirit-moveable. You respond to those calls from Headquarters.
That can be difficult if you're like me. I've got a wall-to-wall schedule, I've got a lot of plans. I resist being delayed. I'm not really happy about being detoured from my plans. Planning and schedules, birthed with prayer, are good ways to make the most of each moment God gives us.
But I'm learning to integrate all that with something I call Spiritaneity. Don't look it up; it's my word. Go ahead and plan, schedule, use your time well, but drive with an open channel to the Dispatcher. And learn to act when the Spirit's impulse comes, often through something He'll say to you in God's Word.
Those unscheduled, unplanned obedience's have often put me smack dab in the middle of God's miracle, God's goodness, God's surprise mission for that day, or with God's person. Paul described it this way in Acts 20:22, "Compelled by the Spirit, I am going, not knowing." Simeon was a man who moved as the Spirit directed and he ended up being led to the fulfillment of his lifelong dream. He was holding the Messiah himself!
So make your plans under the Spirit's leadership and then start driving through your day. But keep listening for the Dispatcher. And when you hear Him, be off to His assignment, and you'll find yourself right in the middle of the supernatural!