Hoist Your Sails!

2 Peter 1

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, February 11.

Have you ever watched a sailboat glide along the water using only the wind to carry it? Have you ever experienced that in your own life?

Listen to Peter speak about God’s Word in 2 Peter 1:20-21, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God [italics added].”

I am daily studying through a wonderful book called “The Handbook of Bible Promises” and in it the authors say about this passage, “The word used for ‘carried along’ [‘moved by’ in the NAS95 translation that I am using] was used of a ship carried along on the sea by the wind. That is how the Scriptures were written; the writers, as it were, ‘hoisted their sails’ to the Holy Spirit, and were ‘carried along’ by him, so that what they wrote was exactly what he wanted written.”^[1]

What a beautiful image. The New Testament authors were fully engaged people in the process, but they were carried along by God’s Spirit. This is how we are supposed to live our lives with the Word of God being the rudder of our ship, setting our direction, and the Holy Spirit filling our sails to carry us along. God is the one at work in us and through us to bring about His glory.

Seize the moment and entrust your direction in life and your pace of life to God. Keeping your hand firmly on the rudder of God’s Word, hoist your sails and allow the Holy Spirit to take you deeper into God’s will.

YOUTUBE:

[1] Mike Beaumont and Martin Manser, The Handbook of Bible Promises, 2020, 116.