Then Paul answered, “What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

  - Acts 21.13, 14

I am bound by the Spirit, Whose testimony is that if I [return to Britain] He will afterwards find me guilty. And I am afraid of wrecking the task I have begun – and not just I, but the Lord Christ, Who commanded me to come and live among them for the rest of my life.

  - Patrick, Confession, Irish, 5th century

Outcomes
Patrick’s superiors were trying to get him to come back to Britain and give an account of his ministry. Leave the field and all those to whom he was ministering, and come back to answer to people who weren’t willing to send him to Ireland in the first place.

Right.

Some false charges were circulating, and the clergy in Britain didn’t much like him anyway – petty jealousy – so they pressured him to leave his ministry and come explain himself to them.

But Patrick would not. He was bound by the Spirit, like Paul, to do only what the Spirit expressly showed him to do. And in Patrick’s case, that did not include returning to Britain.

Have you ever experienced that? Bound by the Spirit? So constrained by divine impetus, calling, or direction that you simply can’t do anything other than what you have determined to be the will of the Lord?

What would it be like to live our whole lives that way? The Spirit of God is at work within us. His goal is to lead us into all truth, convict us of sin and righteousness, make us willing and able to do the good pleasure of the Lord, and build-up the fruit, gifts, and power we need to live was witnesses for Christ.

But for many of us it almost seems – correct me if I’m wrong – that, rather than being bound by the Spirit and committed to whatever He wants, we have bound Him, quenching and stifling His work within us by our lack of faith and unwillingness to obey the plain teaching of God’s Word.

If we want to be bound by the Spirit, we’re going to have to follow the example of Patrick and Paul. Make up your mind to do whatever God makes clear to you in His Word, and stay on task until He and He alone relieves you.

Every day.

Don’t be dissuaded from following Him by those who think you owe them something or those who love you, but just don’t get it.

Yield to the Spirit, and let Him bind you with cords of love.

Then remember Patrick and Paul, watch what the Spirit will do with your life.

Psalm 139.23, 24 (Ripley: “Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul”)
Search my heart, O Lord, and know me, as You only, Lord, can do!
Test my thoughts and contemplations, whether they be vain or true.
Let there be no sin in me, Lord, nothing that Your Spirit grieves.
Lead me in the righteous way, Lord, unto everlasting peace!

Lord, do I dare ask You to bind me by Your Spirit, that I might do all Your holy will.

New at the Scriptorium
Beginning next week, the Scriptorium column at www.ailbe.org will finally come into its own. In a monastery, the scriptorium is where the Scriptures were studied, copied, and annotated. And so it will now be in the Scriptorium of The Fellowship of Ailbe. Each day will feature a new column in a series devoted to unpacking the teaching of a single book of the Bible. We begin with Ecclesiastes, one of the most difficult, but most important books, of the Bible. Each day offers a new lesson, and at the end of each week, those lessons are bound into a single study, complete with discussion questions, that you can download for free to use for yourself or with your study group. Go ahead, have a look at Ecclesiastes 1, the subject of next week’s Scriptorium columns.

And if you think about it, encourage your pastor and other shepherds to visit the Scriptorium of The Fellowship of Ailbe. They might find the studies helpful for their own growth and ministries.

Other changes will be coming to The Fellowship of Ailbe over the next six weeks. Stay tuned, and we’ll explain them all. For now, please be in prayer for our Board of Overseers, which is hard at work making all the preparations and changes that will enlarge and enrich our ministry, beginning this summer.

Psalm Schedule
Today
Psalm 119.57-64; Morning: Psalm 38; Evening: Psalm 113
Thursday
Psalm 119.65-72; Morning: Psalm 39; Evening: Psalm 114

T. M. Moore, Principal
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Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.