Spirit-Led \\

Forget “unreached people groups,” your “strategic focus”, or “what works”; our only guide for mission is the Holy Spirit. Jesus concludes His instructions to “make disciples of all nations” with “I am with you always.” He does this to establish His authority to send and guide us on our mission.

Our necessary dependence on the step-by-step leadership of the Holy Spirit is often an afterthought in mission. We tend to consult Him once, then ask for His blessing on our strategy rather than allow Him to guide our every turn along the way.

When Paul was on his second mission trip, the Holy Spirit sometimes frustrated his strategy for mission. In Acts 16, we read that Paul had been “forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia” (v.6), even though that region was full of unreached people who had never heard the gospel. Then (v. 7), when Paul’s team “attempted to go into Bithynia,” “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” Paul’s tactic was to preach where no one else had, but his strategy was to consult the Spirit before doing anything.

If the Spirit were to forbid us from doing something as essential to our mission as preaching the word, what would we do? If He prevented us from meeting some obvious need, would we recognize it as Him?

Our mission depends on the Holy Spirit’s guidance every step of the way.


Caleb Crider is a writer, strategist and co-founder of The Upstream Collective.