One day I had two visits to make and had arranged to make the one farthest away first and then to double back for my second visit as I headed back to the office. The closer I got to my first visit, though, the more I felt an inner prompting to change my plan in order to make the second visit first. It meant going out of my way and off schedule, but God knew that the family I would be seeing first had an immediate crisis. My arrival later that morning would have meant not being present to help them at their greatest point of need. There is no question in my mind that God had led me by the Holy Spirit to change my plans.
I don’t want to give the impression that God leads me this way on a frequent basis and there can be inherent dangers in following your feelings, impressions and inclinations, if biblical discernment isn’t applied. However, it is still true that God can and does lead His children through the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.
Maybe at some point in your own Christian walk you’ve experienced a strong impression or inner compulsion of the Lord’s leading in your life.
In the book, Where Do I Go From Here, God?, the author tells the story of a preacher who was led by the Spirit to a logging camp only to find it deserted when he arrived. So confident was he that the Holy Spirit had brought him to this place that he entered the empty dining hall and began to preach the gospel. It wasn’t until years later that a man approached him in London and reminded him of the incident. This man had been the cook at the camp and was the only man there that day. Unbeknownst to the preacher, this cook hid outside a window, listened to the entire sermon, trusted Christ as his Savior, and had gone on to serve the Lord. (Zac Poonen, Where Do I Go From Here, God?, Tyndale House, 1971, p. 46)
There was a missionary serving in South America who said he felt a strong impression to take a trip into the jungle. After a long and weary trek that night, he arrived at a hut where he found an old Indian on his deathbed. The missionary entered and was immediately asked, “Where’s the book?” The old man explained that he had cried out to God for help and had dreamed about a messenger bringing a book. He said that in the dream he was told to believe the message of the book and he would be saved. As you can imagine, when the missionary brought out his Bible and shared the saving message of Jesus, the old Indian trusted Christ. (G. Christian Weiss, The Perfect Will of God, Moody Press, 1950, p. 86)
God doesn’t always lead people in the manner described in these stories, but sometimes He does. As already stated, there are inherent dangers in following inner promptings without exercising spiritual and biblical discernment. Other things can mask themselves to seem as if they are the leading of the Holy Spirit. For instance: selfish inclinations, past experiences, difficult situations, worldly influences, sentimental bents, physical exhaustion, subconscious fears, emotional stress, Satanic deception (Acts 5:3; cf. 1 John 4:1), etc. Any of these can affect you in a way that make you think you are sensing the inner moving of God’s Spirit when in fact it’s not God’s Spirit at all.
In other words, you have to filter your inner impressions and compulsions to make sure they are from God and not another false source. Tragically, God often gets blamed for people’s bad decisions, which are simply not His fault. Just because a person says they were led to do something doesn’t necessarily mean that it was God that led them. And, of one thing you can be absolutely certain...the Holy Spirit will NEVER (!!!) lead you to do something that is contrary to God’s written Word!
Recently, I went back through the book of Acts to see some of the examples of the Holy Spirit’s involvement in leading believers in the first century. There are some fascinating accounts there of the Holy Spirit’s guidance in believers’ lives.
- Philip (one of the first deacons of the NT church) was instructed to approach the Ethiopian eunuch to present him the Gospel (Acts 8:29).
- Peter was instructed to go to the Roman centurion named Cornelius, which opened the door of the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 10:19-20; cf. 11:12).
- While the church leaders in Antioch were fasting and praying, the Holy Spirit led them to set apart Barnabas and Saul (Paul) for the work of missions (Acts 13:2).
- On Paul’s second missions trip he wanted to go to Bithynia to preach the Gospel, but the Holy Spirit wouldn’t permit it (Acts 16:7).
- At the close of Paul’s third missionary trip, he explained to the Ephesian elders that he was constrained by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem (Acts 20:22-23).
- A prophet by the name of Agabus was led by the Holy Spirit to visually demonstrate to Paul what faced him at Jerusalem (Acts 21:10-11).
From these instances it certainly seems plausible that any believer can know the leading of the Holy Spirit in his or her life. And, it is a mark of spiritual maturity when a Christian can recognize/discern the Spirit’s leading.
Read: Romans 8:14
The leading in Romans 8:14 is to a righteous living that involves putting to death the evil desires of our sinful flesh (8:13). But, it also refers to the Holy Spirit’s personal witness in the believer’s spirit concerning his relationship with God (8:16). This implies that God’s leading should be experienced by every follower of Jesus Christ, though it is usually best recognized by mature/maturing believers. As commentators on this passage note, to be “led by the Spirit of God” is to manifest a spiritual maturity that enables you to recognize the Holy Spirit’s direction, as well as distinguish it from other things that might be prompting you in some way.
Dr. John A. Witmer writes, “Many Bible students see no difference between the word translated ‘sons’ in 8:14 and the word translated ‘children’ in verse 16. However, in verse 16 the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence attests the believer’s birth relationship to God (tekna, ‘children,’ is lit., ‘born ones’). But in verse 14 the Holy Spirit’s control and direction attest the believer’s privileges in God’s family as a ‘son’ (huios means a child mature enough to take on adult family privileges and responsibilities).” (John Walvoord, Roy Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Romans 8:12-14)
Author Rene A. Lopez writes, “Only mature believers (implied by the term ‘as many as’) that are led by the Spirit can rightly be called sons of God...There are two different aspects of being sons of God in Paul. Positionally all believers are sons of God by virtue of faith in Christ (Gal 3:26). Yet, experientially only those believers who walk according to the Spirit, who are led by Him, are manifesting their identity [as] sons of God. Paul refers to the latter here.” (The Grace New Testament Commentary, Vol. 2, p. 664)
Don’t be confused, the primary thing we should be pursuing is spiritual maturity, not inner promptings of the Holy Spirit. But, we must recognize that God wants to lead us personally and poignantly at key moments in our lives and we should be ready to yield to His leading. We shouldn’t be surprised when He impresses upon us something that He wants for/from us that is outside of what we originally understood or planned. We should expect that He will give us certain inner impressions to gently move us from our purpose to His.
There are three words to remember when considering the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives:
1. Learn
It is interesting to note that the Apostle Paul parallels being filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) and being filled with the Scripture. (“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly...” - Colossians 3:16). Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would “guide them into all truth” (John 16:13). And, He also said that God’s word is “truth” (John 17:17).
The primary way the Holy Spirit leads His children is through the scripture. He opens things to their understanding and enlightens their minds to see things they might have otherwise overlooked to guide them into His will.
As someone has accurately said, “The Bible is the only book whose Author is always present with you when you are reading it.” God the Holy Spirit is always there to teach you what you need to know and help you to understand what God is saying to you. (cf. 1 John 2:27: This verse applies to the spiritually mature, but it is true of all believers that the Holy Spirit opens God’s Word to them.)
Illustration:
I was riding with a friend of mine to a meeting and he was telling me about the struggles he was having in his church. The more I probed and the longer he talked about the situation it became increasingly more obvious how painful this whole matter had been to him and his family. When I asked him what he was planning to do next, he moved to get his Bible and opened it to a passage in the OT Prophets. As he began to read what was described in the biblical text it sounded eerily similar to the story he had been describing concerning his church. He then focused in on one specific verse and said, “When I read this (reading the verse out loud again) I knew exactly what God wanted me to do. It was if God was audibly speaking to me right there.” He said, “This is God’s Word for my situation and I will respond exactly as it says.”
2. Listen
One of our greatest problems in sensing and/or hearing God’s voice in our spirit or through His Word is that we are just too distracted.
Six times the Gospels record the phrase, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 11:15, 13:9, 43; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8, 14:35)
Seven times the Revelation records the phrase, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22)
It’s been said that hearing is easy, it’s listening that requires a lot of skill. And, that’s what these biblical phrases mean.
Illustration:
There was a fascinating article in The New York Times on September 9, 2012, about "The Science and Art of Listening."
The article said that, "Listening is a skill that we're in danger of losing in a world of digital distraction and information overload."
The article offered scientific proof that it's really hard to listen, "when potential distractions are leaping into your ears every fifty-thousandth of a second—and pathways in your brain are just waiting to interrupt your focus to warn you of any potential dangers." (The New York Times, November 9, 2012, Seth S. Horowitz)
Illustration: Elijah’s story concerning the “still small voice.” (1 Kings 19:11-13)
It was C.S. Lewis that said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
The truth is...if we don’t quiet our lives so we can hear the “still small voice,” it’s likely we’ll not hear it until we’re in great pain.
3. Live
The essential key to experiencing the leading of the Holy Spirit is to live yielded to His control daily. That’s what it means to “be filled with the Spirit.” It’s dying to yourself and your desires so you can experience His presence, power and spiritual fruitfulness in your life.
Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27) It’s the last four words that you should specifically note...and they follow me. If you’re not willing to follow Him wherever He may lead you, then it’s unlikely you’ll ever experience His inner leading or hear His voice speaking clearly through His Word.
Illustration:
Haldor Lillenas, founder of a noted music-publishing company, had made his way to the United States from Scandinavia. His first years in this country were hard, but a kind lady befriended him and taught him the English language.
More importantly, she told him the story of Christ and led him to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. Many times, she sang to him a comforting song entitled God Leads His Dear Children Along.
Years later, he began thinking about the song that had been so meaningful to him in his youth and decided to find out something about its writer, G. A. Young. He discovered that the songwriter had passed away, but that his widow was living in a nearby town.
As the story goes, Mr. Young had demonstrated a lifetime of faithful service to Jesus Christ even though life was anything but easy. After a lot of struggle and diligent effort, his family was finally able to move into their own small home, which they built themselves. While Mr. Young was away holding a meeting some nefarious characters that disliked his Gospel preaching set fire to his house, turning it into a heap of ashes. It is believed that out of this tragedy he wrote the hymn that had brought such comfort and encouragement to Haldor when he was younger.
When Haldor arrived in the little town where G.A. Young’s widow lived, he found her living in very poor conditions. She told him this story.
My husband and I were married while we were very young. God gave us a wonderful life together; he led us from day to day. We had so much of Jesus. But then God took my husband. Now God has led me here, and I’m so excited and glad about it! God has used me in this place. Isn’t it wonderful that God leads his children day by day and step by step?
Many people come to this place and they are so sad and in such great need. They need help and comfort. I have been able to cheer many of them and lead scores of them to the Lord Jesus Christ. How thankful I am that God has brought me to this place, where I can be of so much help to these people!
Haldor Lillenas was deeply moved by Mrs. Young’s words and excited that he had found more than just a story behind a gospel song. He had found a Christian woman completely surrendered to God’s will for her life and to His leading.
