Necessary Over Correction

The Lord says, “I will guide you with My eye, so don’t make Me drag you close to Me like senseless stubborn donkey.” In the intimacy of face to face, He wants to guide you through life. His desire to move us in the right direction often far exceeds our desire to get there.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. [literally the Hebrew says, “I will guide you with My eye.”] Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.
— Psalm 32:8-9 ESV

Taking the Wheel

Have you ever taught someone else how to drive? I was “blessed” with that opportunity for my children. The first few times they were behind the wheel, I’d be sitting next to them with my right foot slamming down on my nonexistent break, and it would take everything in me to not grab the steering wheel. Every once in a while, I would have to grab the wheel and make a necessary over correction because it looked like we were going to smash into something. There was no time for a slow, gentle correction. I needed to snap the car back into the right direction so that we didn’t crash into something.

Wednesday, August 20th, I was in the fourth day of my fast, and as I laid prostrate on the floor in prayer, I saw three words. Sometimes Holy Spirit will speak a phrase to me, but often He shows me words like a billboard in my spirit. This was a billboard moment. The words were: Necessary Over Correction.

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
— Isaiah 30:21 ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
— Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV

Who is the voice telling us to turn? Holy Spirit. What does it mean to acknowledge Him in all our ways? Continually keep your eyes on Him. This goes back Psalm 32 —lock eyes with Him.

Much of the time Holy Spirit gives us gentle, slow corrections to the direction of our lives, but there are moments when He grabs the wheel and makes a hard shift. In church history, we see God’s hard shifts as reformations. Most denominations were formed from these reformations, necessary over corrections. But then we grabbed the wheel back and didn’t allow for further adjustments. We over emphasized the over correction and lost sight of the actual straight path to intimacy.

The over correction is not the end, but the necessary means to the end. When you make an over correction, you also need to be very intentional about additional adjustments to get back on track. When God makes an over correction, we need to be very alert to His further adjustments by returning to our “facetime” with Him. Otherwise, we end up going back and forth from one over correction to the next. And in between the corrections we briefly cross the right path.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. And yet our journey often looks like an extreme zigzag. Have you ever seen a seismograph? It’s a device that records seismic activity. As long as there are no earthquakes, it draws a flat line. When the earth moves, the line shoots up and down depending on the intensity. I think church history probably looks like a continual 2000-year earthquake.

Holiness and Grace
Faith and Works
Truth and Love
Justice and Mercy
Word and Spirit
Evangelism and Prayer
Prophecy and Doctrine
Building and Going
Corporate Participation and Individual Experience

Notice that all of these words are aspects of the Kingdom of God, yet we hard turn from one to the next, nearly crashing before the Lord makes a necessary overcorrection. It can seem like we’re playing pinball instead driving forward on a path. We treat these concepts like they are “either or” when in fact they are both. They all coexist in the straight path.

ThE Path Is the Way

And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.
— Isaiah 35:8-9 ESV

Notice it is called “the Way”. Jesus calls Himself the Way in John 14:6; and throughout the book of Acts, his disciples are referred to not as Christians but as “followers of the Way”. Jesus is the “Way of Holiness”, and when we are immersed in Him, we may have foolish moments but He won’t let us go astray. He will bring gentile correction and at times over correction to keep us on the Highway. Why? Because He loves us so much! When we are immersed in the Way, the Way won’t let us fall out of Him. The path to the Kingdom is extremely narrow because the doorway is Christ alone. Once you’re in Him, there’s exceeding mercy and grace as you proceed, and progress, and grow in the Way. The more we remain focused on His face, the less we will veer off from His will and the less He will need to correct our trajectory.

Right now Holy Spirit says that we are in a time of necessary over correction.

What is the necessary over correction that Holy Spirit is making in your life right now?
Are you fighting Him for the wheel?
Are you listening and submitting for His further adjustments?
Do you see necessary over correction in the church or in your family or in work or in culture?
Instead of camping out on the correction, can you see the Way?
What does it look like for us to simply look Him in the eyes and allow Him to have the steering wheel?

Seeking His presence!
Matt