Hosanna Restoration Church

It is so important that we remain alert at all times. There are times when we are alerted to move and times when we are alerted to stand. There are times when we are alerted to speak and times when we are alerted to be silent. Because of this, it is important that we have our alert level well established.

I was reminded of the importance of alerts this week when I discovered that someone had hacked my credit card. I do have alerts set to go off, but in this case I believe the Holy Spirit sent me the alert before the credit card company. In fact, the Holy Spirit was so far ahead of the company that I never did receive an alert from them. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit protected me and saved the credit card company a lot of problems by quickly shutting the thieves out. This is the business of the Holy Spirit, to destroy the works of the enemy! Just in case you have not checked your credit card alerts lately, make sure they are set and active.

The reason I give credit to God the Holy Spirit for this rescue is because I had no natural reason to go checking my card that day, I just felt like I should and I am glad I did. As a result, I checked all of my cards and made sure they were all tuned up to high protection levels.

Of course it is important to set those alerts on credit cards, but it is even more important to have our spirit on high alert. This requires us to check in regularly, to make sure that everything is set. It requires us to ask the Holy Spirit to warn us at the slightest sign of trouble or interference. When I called the credit card company, they recognized that the thieves had done a one cent charge first to see if the card worked. The next day they did a large charge and when that worked they did a larger charge the next day. The tiny charge opened the door to bigger things. Do you see a spiritual picture here?

We may think that a little indiscretion (sin) or failure to heed the Holy Spirit will not make that much difference. We may think that not telling of God’s goodness when an opportunity arises could really hurt that much. What we think is not important, it is what God thinks. So at the smallest hint of a failure to follow the Spirit’s guidance, the best thing to do is repent and ask the Holy Spirit to increase our alert level.

Look at Paul and Barnabas; what was different about his warning? Sometimes Paul walked right into trouble and sometimes he took off. The difference was in the message of the alert. This time the Holy Spirit told them to go somewhere else with the Good News. So we see that it is not only important to be alerted. More importantly, we must make sure what guidance the Holy Spirit is providing and follow it. Just as failure to follow a detour sign on the highway can lead to a crash, so failure to follow the Holy Spirit can wreck our lives and others around us.

Stay in communication with the Holy Spirit. His job is to lead us into all truth and we know that He does not fail. He reminds us of God’s goodness and character as well as what to do and what to watch out for. Tune in and stay tuned up. Hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying.