What does Tribe teach about following the holy spirit?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on following the Holy Spirit is grounded in the story of Ruth and the pattern of following that runs through it. Brian Hunter pointed to three moments in Ruth where following is the explicit action: Ruth committing to go wherever Naomi goes, Boaz telling Ruth to follow his workers through the field, and Ruth telling Naomi she would do everything she said. That repeated movement, Brian argued, is an invitation for every believer to follow the Holy Spirit in the same way, not with a map in hand, but with a willingness to move when he moves.
One thread Brian kept returning to is how circumstances can mislead us. The story of Ruth is set against real loss and grief, and Naomi even tried to rename herself Mara to match how she felt. But the narrator, inspired by the Holy Spirit, kept calling her Naomi anyway. Brian says, "God's like, I'm only ever going to call you by the name that I have for you." That matters for anyone trying to discern whether they are walking in step with the Spirit, because Brian was direct that "circumstances can be a very poor indicator of walking in the spirit." The name God has for you and the direction he is moving you do not change just because the season is hard.
Brian also connected following the Holy Spirit to the life of Jesus himself, drawing from Luke 4 to show that following is a pattern running through scripture and through Jesus' own example. He noted that it is never too late to get in step with that pattern, saying that "at 80 years old, remember, it's never too late to get synced up with the plan of the Holy Spirit." The teaching as a whole frames following the Spirit less as a dramatic experience and more as a steady, humble willingness to go where he leads, give proportionally, and trust the name he calls you by.
Taught from Ruth 1:1-22 · Luke 4:1 · Deuteronomy 16:9-12 · Joel 2 · Philippians 2:13
“God's like, I'm only ever going to call you by the name that I have for you.”
From Following the Holy Spirit
The passage taught · Deuteronomy 16:9-12
9 You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks.
10 You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you.
11 You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
12 You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- June 10, 2024 Following the Holy Spirit Brian Hunter closes a six-week series on walking in the Spirit, tracing the feast of Shavuot, the book of Ruth, and what it really means to follow where the Holy Spirit leads.
- June 9, 2024 The Festival of Shavuot Brian Hunter walks through Deuteronomy 16, the book of Ruth, and Acts 2 to show what it actually looks like to follow the Holy Spirit rather than your own instincts.