Following

Have you ever had one of those verses in Scripture that made you stop reading?

I mean the verse that just leaps off the page in bold letters and screams, "You can't move on until you digest me."

I had such a verse smack me between the eyes in my quiet time this past week.

I am currently reading through what I consider to be the most whacked out book in all of Scripture. And if you're thinking to yourself, I've read Revelation and it is weird, it's not that book. If you're ever in the mood to be bombarded with the totally bizzare, check out the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament.

Ezekiel was a prophet that God came to multiple times with multiple messages for his people, the Israelites. One day, Ezekiel is hanging out by a river and he looks up to see a tornado made of fire and four living creatures that had four heads and were flying coming before it. After a few minutes of watching this scene, Ezekiel makes the following observation, and I couldn't get past it for anything. Here it is:

And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went. (Ezekiel 1:12, ESV)

Did you catch that they kept moving forward? They advanced. Never deviating, never turning, but following the total lead of the spirit.

Church, we have got to take a hold of the leading of the spirit and follow it.

People will come at you with every situation imaginable and try to deviate you from your course. Satan will try to get you to follow the things of this world and bog you down, but you need to stand firm and follow the leading of the spirit. Keep advancing.

Don't deviate. Don't turn right, don't turn left, and never, never go back.