GUIDANCE FROM PAPER MAPS OR GPS APPS?

I love maps.  There is a map of South Orange County on the wall of my office so I can pray for our stakeholders in all our cities.  I also have a map of the world so I can pray for the nations and dream with God about what he is doing and where I can join him.  A good map gives me the big picture, so I can see the details in relationship to each other.  The Bible is like a map.  But the guidance it provides is limited.

I need to know where I am and where I want to go if a map is going to be of any use to me.  Even a compass doesn’t help with that.  A compass can show you what direction you are facing.  With a map, it can help you chart a course.  But without knowing where you are, you are still lost.  You can orient yourself by landmarks or terrain features, but GPS is the best way to know where you are. A device connected to the “Global Positioning System” triangulates your position relative to a satellite in space and another known landmark to give you an accurate picture of where you are.  From that knowledge, it can help you find where you are going with amazing accuracy.

While the Bible is like a map that gives you the big picture, the Holy Spirit is like GPS.  God’s Spirit can show you where you are and where you want to go.  Holy Spirit can give you step by step directions about what turns to make next.  When you get off track, he can reroute you.  You might even hear the voice of the Spirit with the same accent as Siri.  Maybe not. Whatever voice you hear, God has spoken through Scripture like a map, and by his Spirit he can show us where on the map we are and guide us to where we need to go.  So don’t worry.  You have everything you need to get there from here.