If you walk into any Christian bookstore today you will find a number of books that teach you how to get along with your wife, raise your kids, handle your finances, manage your time, share your faith, study your Bible, conduct your prayer life, grow your church, ad infinitum. Along with these voluminous volumes you will also find all of those confusing titles. One may suggest that there are 10 keys to unlocking the happy Christian life. Another may imply that there are 7 secrets to living the Spirit-filled life. And a third may boast that its pages contain the twelve steps to Christian victory. Well, which is it: 10 keys, 7 secrets or 12 steps? Who knows?

In 2 Corinthians 11:3, the Apostle Paul expressed his fear that “the serpent” would beguile the Corinthian Christians as he had “Eve through his subtlety,” leading them away “from the simplicity that is in Christ.” As a visit to any of today’s Christian bookstores will prove, what Paul feared happening to the Corinthians has definitely happened to us. “The serpent” has slyly slithered his way into today’s church and led us away from simple lives of devotion to Christ. We have made the Christian life so complicated, not to mention so confusing, that today’s Christians have little hope of living it successfully.

Is the Christian life really that complicated? Do we really need to read all of those books and acquire all of that knowledge in order to do all of those things successfully in our Christian lives? And how about those 10 keys, 7 secrets and 12 steps, which of them should we subscribe to? You will probably be relieved to learn that all you need to know to live the Christian life successfully can be found in one verse of Scripture.

In John 2:1-11, we are told about our Lord’s first miracle, changing the water to wine. Jesus, along with His mother and disciples, had been invited to a wedding in Cana of Galilee. During the wedding an embarrassing situation arose; the wine reserves for the wedding feast ran out. Becoming aware of the embarrassing situation, Mary reported the need to her Son.

Jesus’ response to His mother, “Woman what have I to do with thee,” has been misunderstood and misinterpreted by many. Some have even suggested that Jesus was being disrespectful. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Jesus was just informing Mary that he did not take His orders from her—His earthly mother—but from headquarters—His heavenly Father. Jesus was not dictated to by the tyranny of the urgent or the expectations and demands of others. He only did what His Father told Him to do. When He checked in with the Father on this occasion, He received divine command and consent to change water to wine. Therefore, thanks to His heavenly Father’s say-so, Jesus spared some family friends from embarrassment and embarked on His own miracle working ministry.

Mary’s words to the servants at the wedding in Cana, “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it,” are her last recorded words in all of Scripture (John 2:5). They are also all the Scripture you will ever need to live a successful Christian life. Living a successful Christian life is as simple as doing whatever Jesus tells you to do! This explains why Jesus commended another Mary, who “sat at [His] feet, and heard his word,” for doing the “one thing” we all need to do (Luke 10:38-42). The only thing we need to do to live our lives as Christ intends is to live our lives listening intently to Him!

Living in the Spirit is as simple as doing whatever Jesus tells you to do through the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit who lives within you. You don’t need 10 keys, 7 secrets or 12 steps to live in the Spirit; all you need to do is “whatsoever he saith unto you.” Likewise, when you are doing whatever the Spirit is telling you to do, you won’t need to read all of those books on how to get along with your wife, raise your kids, handle your finances, manage your time, share your faith, study your Bible, conduct your prayer life or grow your church. All of these things will fall into place and take care of themselves.

Years ago I went to hear a preacher of some renown. When he rose to speak, he announced his topic for the evening: “How to Live in the Spirit.” He then proceeded to inform us that his sermon would consist of three points. By this time, I was regretting that I had traveled a considerable distance to hear this well-known pulpiteer. The last thing I felt like I needed was another man-made formula for living in the Spirit; however, I was soon to be pleasantly surprised.

The first point of this popular preacher’s sermon was: “Do the next thing that the Holy Spirit tells you to do.” His second point was identical to his first: “Do the next thing that the Holy Spirit tells you to do.” His final point, as you may have guessed by now, was the same: “Do the next thing that the Holy Spirit tells you to do.” Till this day that sermon is still the very best I’ve ever heard on how to live in the Spirit. In fact, I don’t believe it can be improved upon. The simple truth is: All you need to do to live in the Spirit is the next thing that the Holy Spirit tells you to do!