Most people go through their lives with blinders firmly fixed to their faces. While they claim that they can see, most only see, at best, as through a fog. Few take the time to examine and evaluate the wake of their existence. Every person alive creates a wake of some kind. When you leave the room, what was the impact on those left behind? When word leaks out that you are coming what is the response? You, Spiritual Leader, have a definite edge over the secular leader. This edge comes from the fact that you can examine your choices and your impact with an assistant. To activate this edge, invite the Holy Spirit to search your heart.
Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
When I judge myself, it is very easy to justify my right and wrong choices. But the Holy Spirit cannot lie. The Holy Spirit can also search the depths of your heart, your past and more to discover why you are doing what you are doing. Sometimes we have unresolved sin or hurt that causes us to do things that are less than ethical. Invite God to open the eyes of your heart and show you the way everlasting. With the help of the Holy Spirit all of my puny justifications vanish into the ether. My heart can begin to look into the long-term impact of my decisions.
Many of our modern systems push us to only think of the present or maybe the near future. However, native American tribes traditionally look to how the choices that they make today will impact generations many years from now. When you invite in the Holy Spirit, He can give you warnings and directions and even visions that will reveal the unknown. We do not know what tomorrow holds. But we can trust the one that is already there, pointing us to the Jesus. When I depend on my own thinking and attempt to write my own story difficulties will come. Consider when Abram and Sarai chose to have a child through Hagar. That choice was made separated from God. That choice was fully justified in the eyes of men. But if they would have paused and shared with God their plans, He could have explained the trouble that would result. Initially the result was only their own family but ultimately the conflicts that it created are still a part of our modern world.
My friend, invite in the Holy Spirit and evaluate your choices. Make this a regular process and your mind will begin to be shaped by the lessons learned. The wake that you create will begin to be more positively impactful on the world.