In order for us to be led by the Spirit of God, you must understand that you are a spirit being, you have a soul [mind, will, emotions] and you live in a body.
Your spirit has been saved. (2 Cor. 5v17); your soul is being saved. (James 1v21); your body will be saved. (1 Cor. 15v42-56)
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So here we see God mentioning spirit, soul and body. And notice that Paul begins with the inside, your spirit and then comes to the outside, your body. Most people will say body, soul and spirit. They put their body first because they are more body conscious than spirit conscious. Natural things mean more to them than spiritual things.
But man is a spirit being and because of that, we need to learn to become more spirit conscious. Learn to become more aware of your spirit. Spiritual things will become more real to you if you become more spirit conscious.
With your spirit you contact the spiritual realm. With your soul you contact the intellectual realm. With your body you contact the physical realm.
Now the reason why I mentioned all these thoughts first, is because God leads us by our spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in our spirit and He leads us through our spirit. Say, “I am born of the Spirit, I am filled with the Spirit and I am led by the Spirit. I live a Spirit led life”.
Romans 8:14
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Not driven by the Holy Spirit but led. He does not drive you, force you to do something or go somewhere. He leads and we choose to follow.
Romans 8v15-16
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit. So the primary way that God leads all of His children is by the inward witness, by an inner conviction. And the primary is always better than the secondary.
The Holy Spirit is not at “it”. He is a real Person. He is a Divine Person. It is inappropriate to refer to someone as an “it”. You can’t fellowship with an “it” but you can fellowship with a Person.
The Holy Spirit has a mind, a will and emotions. He can be grieved. He can respond. He can be glad. He can be sad. The Holy Spirit is a real Person. Jesus is a knowable Person; therefore the Holy Spirit is also a knowable Person.
You can get to know Him. You can learn to become more aware of Him. You can learn to become more sensitive to His leading in your own personal life. So God leads us by His Holy Spirit through our spirit.
Proverbs 20:27
The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.
Your spirit is the lamp of the Lord. That means that God will enlighten you and guide you through your spirit. God will bring light to your life through your spirit. The answer will come from your spirit. The direction you need will come from the inside, from your spirit.
Proverbs 16v3 Amp
Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.
So God will transfer His thoughts from His Spirit into your spirit, which will then rise up from your spirit into your mind. His thoughts will then become your thoughts which will be in line with His will for your life. His thoughts will be pleasant. It will be peaceful. You will have an assurance, a knowing that this is what I must do.
So the number one way, the first way, the primary way that God will lead all His children is by the inward witness. God does not say that He will guide you through your body and He does not say that He will guide you through your mind. God will lead and guide you, enlighten you through your spirit. The Bible does not say the body of man is the lamp of the Lord, or the mind of man is the lamp of the Lord. It says the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord.
So instead of Christians being led by the Spirit of God, they end up being head led, feelings led, circumstances led, emotions led, crisis led, need led, people led and money led. But you need to be Spirit led.
Don’t move just because of more money. Always check your spirit. Check your heart. Don’t lean on your own understanding. Lean on the Greater One that is in you. Be led by the Spirit of God.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart [spirit], and lean not on your own understanding [head]; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
So learn to put your spirit first. Feed your spirit. The food for your spirit is the Word of God.
FF Bosworth said, “Some people feed their bodies three hot meals a day and their spirit one cold snack a week and then wonder why their faith is so weak.”
Spending time in the Word of God sharpens your ability to hear the voice of God. The Holy Spirit will never lead you apart from the Word of God. He will never lead you contrary to what the Word says. He will always lead you in line with the Word of God. He will never lead you to tell a lie or lead you to take something that doesn’t belong to you. He is in agreement with what the Word of God says. That is why we need to spend time in the Word so that we can recognize wrong thinking and wrong leadings when it comes.
John 10v2-5
But he who enters by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep. To Him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear His voice; and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. And when He brings out His own sheep, He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
You also need to understand that you cannot exercise faith in the Word of God and ignore the leading of the Holy Spirit. You cannot exercise your authority and ignore the leading of the Holy Spirit. For example; if the Holy Spirit leads and unction’s you to not go to a particular place or go in a particular direction, then you can’t quote Psalm 91, claim God’s protection and say “No! I will still go, I am not afraid, God is with me” and ignore the leading of the Holy Spirit telling you not to go that way. You can’t exercise faith in the Word of God and ignore the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Be careful that you don’t look to people and external things to find guidance and direction for your life.Don’t put out fleeces.
What is a fleece?
When you put out a fleece, you pray something like this, “God if you want me to do this, then let 5 red trucks pass me right now, or God if you want me to do this, then let this happen”. It is unscriptural and very dangerous for you to pray like that. You are looking to the outside to see which way God wants you to go.
Don’t look for the spectacular and ignore the supernatural leading of the Holy Spirit that is in you.
Judges 6:36-40
So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said – look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water.
Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.
So we are not led externally like Gideon was. We are led internally by the Holy Spirit living in our spirit. Gideon was not born again so he never had the Spirit of God living inside of him like we do.
Numbers 9:15-23
Now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the Testimony; from evening until morning it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire.
So it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents.
At the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped. Even when the cloud continued long, many days above the tabernacle, the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord and did not journey.
So it was, when the cloud was above the tabernacle a few days: according to the command of the Lord they would remain encamped, and according to the command of the Lord they would journey. So it was, when the cloud remained only from evening until morning: when the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they would journey; whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud was taken up they would journey.
Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey. At the command of the Lord they remained encamped, and at the command of the Lord they journeyed; they kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
The people of Israel were led externally. When the cloud moved, they moved. When the cloud stayed, they had to stay. The cloud represented God’s presence, God’s provision, God’s protection, God’s peace and God’s grace. As long as they followed and obeyed, their protection and provision was guaranteed.
We are led internally by the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit says stay, we stay. If He says move, we move. That is how our protection and provision are guaranteed.
Some Christians move at the wrong time. They move because of an opportunity. We are not to be led by an opportunity. An opportunity is not a leading.
Then some Christians move when they experience times of famine and challenge and because they are not led by the Spirit of God, end up experiencing all sorts of trouble and pain.
Ruth 1:1–5
Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion – Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there.
Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband died; and she was left, and her two sons. Now they took wives of the women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; so the woman survived her two sons and her husband.
In a time of famine, Elemelech moved out of the will of God and both him and his two sons died prematurely.
Don’t move when you experience times of famine in your marriage, or times of famine in your workplace and especially don’t move when you experience times of famine in your local church. Move only when God says move. When you move, there must be joy, you must be led and you must have a peace in your spirit.
Isaiah 55:12
For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
One of the reasons why many Christians put out fleeces is because they don’t want to take the time to pray, to listen and then wait on the Lord. They become too busy and then want quick answers to their prayers. Learn to wait on the Lord.
Now listen to this: If it’s God today then it will be God tomorrow. You don’t need to rush into things. Don’t allow people and circumstances to drive you and push you and force you into making a decision. If you are uncertain, if you have no peace about it, then put it on a shelf and wait for God to give you the green light, the go ahead.
Isaiah 28v16
....Whoever believes will not act hastily.
Zechariah 4:6 NLT
Then he said to me, “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Many times we pray and ask God for certain things to happen. When we don’t receive the manifestation of it in the time we expected it to happen, we then become discouraged.
But many people don’t give God a chance to work things out for them. They think He never heard them and then they begin to make their own plans. Don’t make your own plans and ask God to bless them; find out what God’s plan is for your life, because it’s already blessed.
Ephesians 2:10 Amp
For we are God’s own handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live]
We must realize that sometimes God has to move upon people’s hearts and minds to get them to respond because the majority of the time God uses people and works through people to help meet our needs.
Romans 8:14
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
So as a child of God you can expect to be led by the Spirit of God.
Confession
Holy Spirit I am so grateful that You are my Comforter, my Counselor, my Helper, my Intercessor, my Advocate, my Strengthener and Standby.
Thank You God for revealing the things that You have prepared for me by your Spirit. The Spirit of God is causing me to know the things that God has freely given to me.
These things that the Holy Spirit reveals to me, I speak them. I also speak the things that the Holy Spirit teaches me. I’m not a natural person. I am a spiritual person who receives the things of the Spirit of God.
It is not foolishness unto me but its wisdom unto me. I know them because they are spiritually discerned. I know and understand the mind, the counsels and purposes of the Lord because I have the mind of Christ. I do hold the thoughts, the feelings and the purposes of God’s heart.
Thank you Holy Spirit for teaching me all things. Thank you for teaching me to profit and leading me in the way I should go.
I am born of the Spirit of God, filled with the Spirit of God and led by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God leads me. He is leading me now. The Holy Spirit will rise big in me today. He will give illumination to my mind. He will give direction to my spirit.
I am always at the right place at the right time because I am led by the Spirit of God. Holy Spirit, I Respect You, I Recognize You and I will Respond to You, in Jesus Name. Amen.
Ps. Lester Holland