As a Pharisee, Nicodemus preferred predictable, programmed, and rigid religion, but Jesus told him that God’s Spirit is unpredictable like the wind. (See John chapter three.) Religiously satisfying the flesh (our human desires and our need to look good before God and people) isn’t enough.

We need to come alive to and to fully enter into a new kind of life, the unpredictable and free flowing life of the Spirit. Paul said: “Those who are led by the Spirit by the Spirit are the children of God.”

Courageously experiencing the unpredictable joy of being led by God’s Spirit throughout the day will awaken you to ongoing, childlike exuberance and faith! It’s not enough to just rock the boat a bit. (That can deceitfully rock you to sleep.) Instead, lay down your pride, daily step out onto the water, and walk in the Spirit.

A predictable church service misrepresents the creative way God wants to lead us by His Spirit. When church attempts to program God, it quenches the Holy Spirit. He can’t be programmed! The rigid predictability of church neglects to prepare us for the unpredictability of life.

If your attitude and actions are taking your life in a direction you don’t want to go, change them! (Sin is deceitful. It can make you think you’re free while it holds you captive.)

Jesus didn’t demand that the Roman government make sin illegal. Instead, He told people to “repent” — to “go and sin no more.”